Cipher 9
by Tylanoid
Summary: All my life I had no control. Not when I was with the Dursleys on Earth, and certainly not when I ended up on Nar Shaddaa as a pickpocketing street-kid. Joining the Sith Empire's Imperial Intelligence was supposed to bring order to that chaos. But one awfully timed invitation to magical school later, and my control was stripped once again. VeryAU, ImpAgentHarry, non-forceuserHarry.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Sorry. But do you think you could help me for a moment?"

I couldn't help but smirk as I watched Bril do what Bril always did best. He was a remarkably smooth operator, and combined with his naturally beautiful Twi'leki features and his honey-toned voice, people didn't mind stopping for him. I could pull it off too, but I had to work harder at it than Bril ever did. Feigning kindness and innocence just came more naturally to my partner-in-crime than they did to me.

I approached the mark from behind. Bril's eyes never once left the man's face. When we were younger, little slips like that - eyes darting behind a target at an inopportune moment - would ruin any chance at success. Years of practice had fixed that. In distracting targets, Bril was unrivaled.

Our mark was a human dressed in fine clothes, probably a businessman of some sort and one with at least _some_ money, since he wasn't coated in grime and dust and didn't smell like a Hutt's back-side like most others on the smuggler's moon.

He was the perfect target for a pickpocket like me - too well dressed and confident to be poor, and foolish or naive enough to believe that he wouldn't get robbed walking through busy streets. Maybe he'd have been safe thinking like that on an inner rim planet, but not on Nar Shaddaa.

For a moon populated by gangsters, thieves and prostitutes, Nar Shaddaa seemed to have an odd propensity for attracting visitors that couldn't seem to watch their pockets." I suppose that's partially because nobody ever keeps anything truly valuable in their pockets, just a few credit chips or an odd trinket or two. Still, one would think that people who have money would be better at keeping it secure. I mean, I always kept their money more secure than they did after I stole it, so I know it's not all that difficult.

I guess I just valued their credits more than they did.

It might go too far to say that I _needed_ it more, but like most pickpockets, I had fewer options than the people from whom I was stealing. At least my targets could re-earn their credits - I had no choice but to steal to earn mine. One doesn't live long on Nar Shaddaa without any credits, after all.

As Bril kept the man talking, I stretched out my left hand, darting it precisely into the man's deep pocket and grabbing a handful of what felt like standard credit chips. The same as Bril's skill in keeping me unnoticed, my skill at smuggling items out of unsuspecting people's pockets came from experience. People on earth often say that practice makes perfect, and that certainly rung true with my skill in pick-pocketing.

As soon as my hand left his pocket, I cut away through the crowd and headed towards our meeting spot. I trusted Bril to end the conversation quickly and make his way over as usual so we could leave. Only an amateur would hang around. Most marks didn't notice we had robbed them until after, but if it happened sooner it was best to be well and truly gone.

I started moving as soon as Bril reached me, and he had to run to keep at my side as I ducked and weaved through the crowd. Luckily for both of us, we were both quite small for twelve-year-olds, and getting out of an area without a hassle was usually easy.

"Well?" Bril asked quietly when he reached my side. "Anything good?"

We stuck to the busier parts of the streets as we fled the scene. That was a skill learned from experience, too. Busy streets made it infinitely easier to hide compared to abandoned alleyways, especially given our size. Anyone chasing us would probably only have seen an ocean of heads, with us ducking in and out underneath it all.

"Just some credit chips," I grumbled. "Hopefully enough to keep Lady Kallis happy."

Bril looked disappointed at that, not that I could blame him. Most days we only made enough to break even, and despite all signs pointing to the fact that it would never happen, we always dreamed of making enough money to make it off such a backwater planet and live a decent life.

Like any of our targets, we too had bills to pay. Well, not bills per se, at least not in the traditional sense, but a percentage of everything we stole had to go towards Zorbo the Hutt's cartel. For protection and board, Lady Kallis claimed, and I couldn't disagree. The Hutt himself owned the brothel we lived in, and only a madman would steal from or attack a Hutt's property.

"You say that like she's _ever _happy," Bril said after a few moments.

He had a point. One would have thought that someone valued so highly by Zorbo that he allowed her to run one of his most lucrative businesses would be a little happier. Doubtless she was making enough credits to fill a mountain, but still, she was… well, frankly, a rotten, evil bitch.

"She'd probably be a whole lot happier if you wouldn't push her buttons every other day," I said.

Bril didn't answer, but no doubt he was sticking his middle finger up behind me.

"Do we have time for another, do you think?" he asked.

I shook my head slightly. "Not worth the risk. It's getting kind of late."

We were part of what I liked to call day criminals. We still broke the law, or at least, whatever system vaguely resembled laws on Nar Shaddaa, but only ever through the day. Nights on Nar Shaddaa were entirely different. The night was the time for gangsters and more hardcore thieves, almost always armed, and in an altogether different league than us pick-pockets.

"Damn it. You're probably right," Bril said, sounding as frustrated as I was. But like me, he knew that it wasn't worth staying out and getting robbed ourselves, if not shot, stabbed or beaten.

* * *

I never stole alone, or did anything alone, not from my first day on Nar Shaddaa when I was five years old. Bril was always with me. Neither of us ever acted without the other, and we would never have been as successful stealing solo as we were as a pair.

Half of our success came down to pure genetics. Bril, though male himself, took very much after his beautiful mother, with a skin pigment of royal blue and a soft dusting of darker blue freckles across his nose. Twi'leks have always been known for their beauty and grace, and not only was this true for Bril, but he could easily have been the poster child for that entire reputation. Despite being noticeably male, he was prettier than most women.

It's a trait that never failed to garner attention, especially when we entered 'The House of Plom Bloom,' the brothel run by Lady Kallis that we called home. I always walked in front of Bril when we went through the central area of the brothel, trying my best to act as a physical barrier between the lecherous creatures and my friend. His good looks weren't always an asset.

It was hard to miss the ogling eyes from the brothel's patrons, especially from some of the disgusting, shameless creatures who didn't even bother to do it with subtlety. Only on Nar Shaddaa would people feel comfortable enough to admit their attraction to one so young. In more ways than just this, it really was the biggest shithole in the galaxy.

I spent the whole walk through the brothel mentally cursing at them with every horrible insult I knew, and continued doing my best to keep Bril shielded from their view. I almost had to bite my tongue to keep from speaking them aloud, and I would have if not for Lady Kallis. If ever I misbehaved on her watch, and especially in her brothel, I'd have been out on my ass within minutes. That's assuming she wouldn't just order me beaten to death instead. In the end, it was always best that I kept my mouth shut.

But Bril's lack of reaction made me just as angry. No doubt he felt like he needed a good scrub down after being leered at by so many filthy aliens, but still he refused to even give them so much as a glaring at. He was under the same rules as me with Lady Kallis, but just once I'd have loved to hear him tell one of them off. But he wouldn't do that, not while he wanted something from Lady Kallis.

We stepped into the back rooms past the familiar bouncers. Taking solace in the fact that the same men who'd just been leering at Bril would kill to go where we went without harm. The men and women who worked in the brothel usually washed and prepared themselves in the back rooms before heading out to their customers, not that we cared about such things. Living in a brothel had a funny way of numbing you to experiences that some people pay big money for.

Lady Kallis stepped out of her office as soon as we entered, somehow always knowing when we'd returned. It wouldn't have surprised me if it was because she could smell the credits on us, greedy as she was. To her, what we had was nothing, a single drop from a vast lake of wealth, but she wanted it anyway, and she wanted it all.

Although she wasn't physically imposing, Lady Kallis was still intimidating. Like all Cereans, she had a tall coned cranium and pale skin, and her glossy black hair flowed down her back like a sheet of silk. Unlike other Cereans, though, Lady Kallis' eyes were blood red and held a hint of danger and madness. She didn't need to be physically strong herself. She could have someone shaking with fright with a mere glance with those eyes.

"You two stink," came her pointedly sharp tones. "You'd better hope one of our patrons doesn't complain about the smell."

I wanted nothing more than to argue that she only lets us bathe once a week, and even then we were only given a handful of minutes each. She claimed it was so we didn't take time away from her girls. I didn't see how that could possibly be true, given that she didn't have workers using the showers all the time, but arguing would have been foolish. Lady Kallis wouldn't tolerate any backchat.

"Yes, Lady Kallis," I said. Next to me Bril said nothing, but he seemed suddenly jittery, and he was rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet.

_Don't do it, idiot. _

"Is my mother available? Do you think I could see her?" Bril asked without a hint of fear in his voice, even though he probably knew what the answer would be, and the reaction that the mere question would cause.

"She's working. I've already had five requests for her tonight," Lady Kallis replied shortly.

"Well, maybe she could have a break?" Bril suggested, his deep blue eyes shimmering with vain hope.

Damn it. Just as I expected, Lady Kallis turned her vicious, terrifying eyes towards Bril. Before he could say or do anything else, she reached out and backhanded him across the cheek, one of her expensive rings carving a thin gash across his cheek. Blue blood welled and began to slide slowly down his face, but he still didn't flinch. Bril was the only person I had ever seen not to show her any fear, and she despised him for it.

"I said no, brat. Give me my credits and get out of my sight."

Before Bril could argue any further and cause us some _real _trouble, I reached down for our daily take worth of credits and dropped them into her outstretched hand.

She tutted at the amount. "I hope you two are capable of more than this," she said, eyeing the small pile of credits with distaste. "Soon, you might be more trouble than you're worth."

When Lady Kallis stalked away and out into her brothel, I had to grab Bril's arm to get him moving. Whenever Bril was refused contact with his mother, he looked utterly destroyed. He let me guide him towards the stairs at the very back that led to the small storage room that Lady Kallis allowed us to sleep in. It was hot and musty and housed way too many spiders, but it was home.

"You really need to stop," I huffed as I finally let go of his arm at the bottom of the stairs. "One day she's going to get fed up and toss you to the streets."

"Shut up. My Mother wouldn't let her do that."

I let out a sigh. While it's true that Bril's mother was Lady Kallis' best courtesan, and the only reason she allowed us to live in the brothel, Bril always had a habit of overestimating how much influence she had. Really, she was just as replaceable as anyone else, though I could never have said as much to Bril.

When I went to answer, Bril was holding the side of his face, his thick blood sliding through his fingers from the cut on his face.

"Come here," I sighed, gesturing to a small box in front of me.

Still holding his face, Bril came over and sat on the box I was gesturing toward. I guided the hand away from his face to have a better look at the damage. Fortunately, it didn't look too deep, and though I was hardly an expert on medical work, I'd had enough cuts and contusions in my time to be sure enough that it wouldn't scar.

"Bloody idiot," I said fondly, mimicking some of the favorite and only words I could remember from my Uncle Vernon. "You know how unpredictable she can be."

I tore a small strip from the bottom of my shirt and wet it from our only source of water, a slightly leaking pipe on the wall. It wasn't perfect, but it at least let me clean the wound.

"Is it so wrong to want to see my mother?" Bril asked, tilting his head to the side to give me better access.

"You know I don't think that," I said, wiping at his face with the slightly wet cloth. "But I think sometimes you forget how dangerous she is."

"No I don't!" Bril argued loudly, pushing me away and fighting back tears. With a swift kick he sent the box sailing across the room and into the wall. "I just want to see my mother!" He snapped. "Why can't she just give me a few minutes?"

I never said a word in response. What could I have said, anyway? Telling Bril that things would change and Lady Kallis would eventually relent and let them spend some time together would have been a lie, and he wasn't stupid or naive enough to believe otherwise. In the end, there was nothing I could do but let him ride out his rage, maybe offer him what little comfort I could.

He was doing his best to fight back angry tears, but his eyes were definitely wet. I wrapped my arms around his back, hugging him tight. I didn't particularly care about his mother, but Bril was the only friend I ever had, and when he was upset, I was too. But there was nothing I could do but hold and let him know that I was still there.

Maybe that would be enough.

* * *

Lady Kallis finally allowed us to wash the next morning. Even if she only gave us a few minutes each, it at least let us clean up enough so we didn't appear to be street kids on immediate sight. That alone always helped us be more productive. We always managed to find targets out on the streets eventually, but it was still easier when we were clean. Dirt repelled wealth, after all.

Our first stop was one of the busiest areas on the top levels of Nar Shaddaa, a place where we were always guaranteed to find a good mark. In the middle of the courtyard was a giant statue of Zorbo the Hutt, easily one of the most influential Hutts in the cartel, and probably the most important individual on Nar Shaddaa. I hated the very sight of the statue, except for the fact that it was quite useful to us. Climbing up just the lowest part of the statue gave us a good vantage in which we could search the crowd for a good mark.

While Bril occasionally picked a solid mark for us, we both knew that I had the better eye for it. Most times, I could tell from a glance the sort of people who were carrying money on them, and of those who would be best to approach.

Unlike other days when we could be waiting hours for a suitable target, it wasn't long before I found a potential mark walking through the crowded courtyard. He fit all the criteria I was looking for - alone, likely unarmed and definitely with the air of wealth about him. His expensive clothes and tidy hair were proof enough of that. More than that though, he looked nervous, his eyes constantly shifting and scanning the people around him warily. Even better, he was carrying a thick, heavy case.

Before I could point him out to Bril, the young man looked directly at where we had perched on the bottom of the statue. His eyes locked on our location like glue, and for a moment I thought he had realized what we were up to. After a moment more, it became apparent - he wasn't looking at me at all. He was looking at Bril, and after years of living in a brothel, I could recognize the look in his eyes.

Lust.

It made him the perfect mark.

* * *

**Notes**

So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. The idea for this fic just kind of randomly hit me when I was playing SWTOR one day, and ever since scenes and plot have been just coming to me. At this point its probably the fic I have plotted the most.

This fic is set in the time of The Old Republic, which means both an active Republic and Empire at the same time. It also means a whole lot of Jedi and a whole lot of Sith are out in the galaxy, but in this, Harry is not a force user, but will still have his magic.

Also, hogwarts and earth will absolutely play a role, and in the coming chapters I will reveal how Harry ended up on Nar Shaddaa.

Please feel free to leave a review or any constructive criticism. I can't even begin to describe how happy reviews make me.

**PS. ****I've created a discord for anyone who might be reading my fics and has any questions. I'm planning to update it every day, updating you guys on where I am with updating any of my fics. I'll be open to suggestions, maybe give you guys some early snippets of upcoming chapters or who knows. I might also rec some fics that I've been reading or you guys can rec some to me or each other or whatever. I've also got a section for you guys to recommend your own fics to the rest of the discord, and hopefully a space to set up review swaps. Just a space to talk about fanfiction, really. A few people have already joined. **

**FFN is super weird about putting up links in general, but especially on stories themselves, but the link is at the top of my profile. **

**Hope to see you there!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Hey, Bril, do you seem him?" I asked quietly, careful to do nothing more than a subtle gesture towards my target. After so long together we were more than experienced in making ourselves appear as innocent and guiltless as possible, and I trusted Bril to follow my line of sight without it seeming like he was doing anything conspicuous. From the look of distaste that flashed across his features, I knew he'd spotted the man in question.

"I'm not doing it," he said immediately. "You promised me we wouldn't do that anymore."

I can't say his reaction surprised me, nor that he'd guessed what my plan was before even hearing it. We'd been in similar situations before, but this mark seemed much more valuable than any others I'd seen. He didn't want to be noticed, that much was certain, and I had a gut feeling it was because he was carrying something in his case that would make him a target.

"I know I did, but-"

"No, Harry," Bril said with a tone of finality.

It was hard to blame him. Honestly, I hated the plan almost as much as he did. Anybody who looked at Bril through such a lens disgusted me to my very core, but I couldn't deny how useful it was to us. Their attraction to Bril always overcame their good senses, and it made it a whole lot easier to steal from them.

"But you're always the distraction anyway," I argued quietly.

Bril shook his head firmly. "We've talked about this before."

Bril's argument was that using kindness and innocence to distract a target was one thing, but using his looks to feign seduction was entirely another. He had a point, too. Feigning seduction made him vulnerable, and was far riskier than just acting as a distraction so I could rummage through a target's pocket. Not to mention how gross it must have made him feel.

Still, the plan was the only way I could see us getting our hands on that case. He had already started to walk away in the other direction after his long and obvious leering, so I had to convince Bril quickly.

"Please? It's the only way. I _know_ he's got something in that case. What if it's something that can help us get off Nar Shaddaa?"

Bril grunted, almost a low growl from deep in his throat. He shook his head slightly before turning a severe eye on me. "This is the last time."

I smiled slightly. "Yes, the last time," I answered quickly. Before long, the mark would have left the square, and getting lucky enough to find him again was a long shot. But Bril was in no big hurry. He was still staring at me with wide eyes.

"I want to hear you say it. Say, 'Bril'valla, I swear on our friendship that I won't make you do this anymore.'"

_On our friendship? _That was enough to make me hesitate. We had only each other, and Bril knew it. Giving up our friendship would be giving up the only thing we actually had, given that Bril rarely saw his mother. But just the fact that he was making me swear such a vow told me how serious he was.

"Bril'valla, I swear on our friendship that I won't make you do this anymore," I said in as honest a tone as I could muster.

It must have been good enough for him, because then he was vaulting off the statue and landing deftly on his toes below. "Stay behind us," he said before running off gracefully toward our target.

I leapt off the statue with half as much grace as Bril, but headed off in a just slightly altered path behind him. My job was to follow and wait for a good opportunity to steal the case, so I had to stay out of their line of sight. The best way to get caught would be to stay directly behind him. I had to stay close enough to see him though, and I found a good spot amongst the passing crowd where the mark was unlikely to see me. He would have had to turn and crouch down to see me watching, so unless I brought attention to myself, there was no real risk.

I was there just in time to see Bril approach. Though he hated it, he was an indisputable expert in attracting attention, especially the kind we needed. When he was trying to distract a random target on the street, he would just strike up a conversation or ask for help, but when he was trying to get the other kind of attention, he had a very different approach.

Genetics is a funny thing, and as the son of one of Nar Shaddaa's most talented courtesans, Bril was a natural. He stalked up to the mark with grace and charm in spades and sidled up to him. The man, shifty as he was, jumped slightly at Bril's presence before looking at who it was.

Almost immediately I saw his defenses lower. Any logical person would question why a random street boy would approach them, but _want_ makes people lose their senses, and this man very clearly wanted. It might have been risky, but it was the most effective method we had.

Watching their encounter was no easier. The man had no problem with touching Bril, even if just a seemingly innocent touch of the shoulder or a finger running down his arm. It must have made him want to jump out of his skin, but Bril handled it all without so much as a funny look. He even stood up on his toes to whisper in the man's ear, and soon they were walking away and out of the square.

I followed as soon as they moved, careful to stay out of their sight. It wasn't all that difficult, in the end. Though our mark had looked shifty and suspicious before, now he was calm and collected, his thoughts and focus rested entirely on Bril. He even boldly slid his hand down Bril's back as they walked. If I could kill with a look, he would have dropped dead there and then.

* * *

The plan was not going well. Normally Bril could convince our mark to duck into one of Nar Shaddaa's many alleyways or somewhere equally abandoned for us to make our move, but I'd been following them too long. Bril had attempted to persuade him quite a few times from what I could tell, but still the man continued forward.

_He__'s taking him somewhere specific._

That didn't bode well. In an abandoned alley or somewhere else on the streets, we would have the advantage. We knew the streets better than almost anyone, and with our smaller size it was never difficult to disappear into the crowd. That's when such measures were even needed. Once Bril had even convinced a mark to wear a blindfold and handcuff him to a pipe, but I was rapidly losing hope that we would have such an outcome a second time.

My heart sank when Bril walked with the man inside a building to the left, a large unassuming structure that looked like a giant metal box, but what I knew was a hotel with a cantina on the bottom floor. That meant that he was taking Bril to a private room, where not only would we lose our advantage, but where it would be difficult to get Bril out.

_What have I done?_

Before I even knew it, I'd broken out into a run towards the entrance to the cantina. Credits be damned, I had to get Bril out of there while there was still a chance.

"Beat it, street rat!" The bouncer at the door grunted and pushed me onto the floor when I tried to squeeze past him.

"But I know someone in there!" I said desperately as I got back to my feet and tried to push past him

"I said get lost!" he said, pushing me back again.

It was foolish to continue arguing, though thankfully I didn't have to. I could see past the bouncer and to the bar inside, where Bril was standing next to our mark. While he was speaking to the bartender, Bril had turned to face the entrance, knowing that I'd be right behind him.

"Run," I mouthed silently at him.

Bril shook his head, held up a hand in front of his chest and pointed up towards the roof. Then he stopped and held up four fingers. He was trying to send a message, that much I could gather, but why wouldn't he just run? He obviously knew something that I didn't.

_Fourth floor maybe?_

Then two fingers, a fist, and another two fingers.

_Twenty-two. Room twenty-two?_

There was no time to try and understand better, not with the mark turning back around and laying a hand on Bril's shoulder. Bril turned with him and out of view, but not before I got a glimpse of the most terrified look I'd ever seen on his face.

Nothing in my life had affected me so terribly. Bril never looked scared. _Never._ He could face down Lady Kallis, a woman who was so intimidating that she'd scored herself a high position in a Hutt cartel, and he wouldn't even bat an eyelid. Now though, he was truly scared, and I was scared for him.

Robbing didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that I had to save my friend from a fate that I'd condemned him to.

_But how?_ From the mean look on the Trandoshan bouncer's face, there was no chance he would let me through. But there had to be a back entrance somewhere. I turned around and headed to the side alley next to the cantina, hoping to find a way around the building until I could get inside.

It was a dead end. A high wall blocked me from getting all the way around.

_No!_

Above me, I could see the windows that probably led into the hotel rooms. I couldn't help but feel a hollow pit in my stomach as I looked at the ones on the top floor. Bril could have been in any of them, wondering if I was coming to save him.

There was no door into the building that I could reach quickly except for the one guarded by the bouncer, and I had approximately zero chance of getting inside past him.

_Think, Harry__…_

It was a risk, and it would take a little more time, but the apartment building next door to the hotel was just as tall, and probably close enough to jump between. It was the only choice I had. As fast as I could run, I made my way to the front of the building and straight through its unguarded front door.

There was no time to curse about the lack of an elevator. I went straight to the stairs and headed up as far as it could go, ending up on its empty roof a few long minutes later, out of breath and sore-muscled.

Looking down would have been a mistake, and time was of the essence. I leapt off one leg at the edge of the building after a run-up, swinging my arms and legs in midair as if they could help urge me forward to the hotel roof. But it wouldn't be enough. I was only halfway when it hit me, the knowledge that I simply would not make it. I could already feel gravity start to drag me down towards the ground.

But somehow, I made it. My body was flooded with energy, and for just the briefest moment, I would have sworn I was floating. But that would have been impossible, and adrenaline can do strange things. I realized belatedly that the hotel didn't have a door on the roof like the building I'd just come from.

_Harry, you absolute idiot._

I stepped over to the back side of the building to peer over the side, hoping there was a way down on that I couldn't reach beforehand. Being right at the edge of the district, from there I could see right off the edge, all the way down into the polluted smog of the surface of the planet. The whole world seemed to sway, but there were small balconies jutting out of the building, so small that it would be easy to miss and go hurtling off to my death.

It was worth the risk.

I laid down on my stomach right at the edge and slowly hung my legs over the side. I kept myself pressed firmly to the building wall before dropping smoothly onto the balcony below.

That was when I heard him. Just faintly, maybe two balconies away, I could definitely hear Bril. Not words, just muffled sounds of desperation and anger.

"Don't play hard to get now," I heard the mark say loudly. "You sounded so eager before."

As disgusted as I was at the words, I couldn't help but be relieved. It meant that nothing had happened yet, and I still had time. Probably not much by the sounds of things, but hopefully enough to get Bril out of there.

Of course, there was the problem of actually being able to do that.

That I could hear Bril and the mark meant that his balcony door was open, and I could get inside. Not that I had any idea what I would do when I did. It was easy to think I could just get in there and escape with Bril with relative ease, but logic dictated differently. But that would not stop me, either. It was rash, maybe, but doing nothing wasn't one of my choices.

I climbed onto the wiry fence surrounding the balcony, pressing myself to the wall for dear life. Just one misstep and I would go tumbling into the smog of Nar Shaddaa below, so thick and deep that the moon's floor could barely be seen underneath it. Nevertheless, I stretched out a leg, finally letting go of the wall and leaning into the next balcony.

One down, one to go.

"Get off me!" I heard Bril yell, louder now that I was closer.

"Aww, why so difficult? You were the one who approached me, remember?"

With mounting guilt, I climbed onto the fence of the second balcony, preparing for the final leap towards Bril. It was certain now that the next room was his. I might not have used Bril's hints to find him, but apparently there was at least some level of luck on my side.

My intention was to be as quiet as possible as I landed on the balcony of the mark's hotel room. At least that way I would have had the element of surprise on my side. But whatever luck had allowed me to get to Bril had run dry, and as soon as my feet landed on the metal guardrail it buckled underneath me with an almighty crunch.

Adrenaline had me jumping back to my feet immediately, but the damage was already done. Inside, the man was lying flat on top of Bril on the bed, though other than a ripped shirt, thankfully Bril was still clothed. Both he and the mark looked as stunned as I must have, but soon his expression changed, and I saw his gaze flick towards the cabinet against the wall.

When my eyes followed his, I could see why. On top of the cabinet was a small blaster pistol.

_No wonder Bril wouldn__'t run._

We both moved at the same time to lunge for it, but with me outside, there was no doubt he would get to it first. If not for Bril. He moved at the same time, leaning forward and shoving the man hard in the back, sending him tumbling to the floor beside the bed instead of making it to the blaster before me.

I made a final lunge towards the blaster. My sweaty hands held it pointed at the man's head. Despite lying on the dirty carpet, facing down the deadly end of the blaster, and having just been denied the object of his desire, he had a completely emotionless expression.

"You don't want to do that, boy," he said.

He was one hundred percent wrong. I could see Bril shaking out of my peripheral vision, and I knew exactly what would have happened if I hadn't made it in time. I wanted to do it. I'd wanted nothing more in my life. I held the blaster even higher, steadying my shaking hands and holding my finger squarely over the trigger.

"Just put it down and we can forget this ever happened," he said, his face still betraying no emotion at all.

I had no intention of putting it down. I'd never killed anyone, nor had I ever wanted to before, but with my finger on the trigger and Bril with his torn clothes next to me, I was just itching to pull it.

"Harry…" Bril whispered.

I fired.

With a thud the body hit the floor, as did the blaster when it dropped from my shaking hands.

"You killed him," Bril sounded as stunned as I felt.

I didn't tear my eyes away from the body on the floor. Even if I felt no remorse, my heart was frantic in my chest. I had never imagined that I would kill anyone, even after living on Nar Shaddaa where murderers were as common as liars and prostitutes. There was a clear line between stealing and murder, and it's a line I had thought I would never cross.

"I…-"

I had no idea what to say. I was terrified of how Bril would look at me. He'd always been so much softer than me, and seeing me kill someone in cold blood might just have been enough for him to see me in an entirely new light. We were thieves, not killers.

"You came after me," Bril whispered, as though he hadn't been sure I would.

I finally turned to face him. He wasn't looking at me with disgust like I feared. Instead, his expression was all gratitude, like he couldn't believe that I would go so far to get to him. But just beyond his gratitude I could see how scared he'd been. His blue eyes were shimmering wet, and he still hadn't stopped shaking. I'd put him in a situation where his worst fears might have been realized.

"Bril… I'm so sorry," I said, my voice cracking. "This will never happen again." If I didn't mean it the first time I made the promise, then I definitely meant it the second.

"I know, Harry, I know," Bril said, throwing his arm around my shoulders.

I only stayed for a moment. After what I'd done, I didn't deserve his forgiveness or his affection. Forcing him into a situation he feared above all else was the greatest betrayal I could have wrought. I gently pushed him away and moved to the foot of the bed, where the mark had placed the case. At the very least, maybe the case would make it all worth it.

It was far heavier than it looked, which meant it was definitely full of something. I laid it on the end of the bed and flicked open the latches on the top, unfolding it into two halves.

On the bottom half was a vision I had imagined through all my time on Nar Shaddaa, and never believed I would get to see. It was completely full of credits. More than enough to get myself, Bril and his mother off the smuggler's moon, with enough left over to start a new life somewhere new.

But the top half took all that hope away. Red and garish, the sigil of the Empire was emblazoned on the inside. There was also what looked to be a personal holocom, though I was hardly an expert on technology.

Bril sucked in a breath. "Harry… I think he might've worked for the Empire!"

The holocom in the case flared to life, and a blue ghostly figure about the length of my forearm appeared over the open case. He was human - balding and wearing some sort of grey uniform - and leveling a stare at me that put Lady Kallis's efforts to shame.

"Quite right you are, Bril'valla," he said. "Your friend Harry has just murdered an Agent of Imperial Intelligence."

_Oh, shit._

* * *

**Notes**

Hope you enjoyed chapter 2. For those still wondering, yes Harry has his magic and Hogwarts as you know it will make an appearance. I just couldn't stop thinking about how effective an Imperial Agent would be with the versatility of Harry Potter Magic behind him. Even the simple spells like alohamora would be invaluable, not to mention some of the more complex magic like the Polyjuice potion. That's where the idea for this fic came from.

As always, I absolutely love reviews, and I'm making a big effort to respond to any questions anyone has, so don't be afraid to ask.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I really should have been more concerned with the fact that I'd murdered an Imperial Agent, but all I could think about was how this mystery stranger knew our names. Realistically, neither of us should have been in any Empire records, since we grew up on the streets of Nar Shaddaa. In fact, of all the people on Nar Shaddaa, I would probably only need one hand to count the people who might know my name.

"We didn't know he worked for the Empire!" Bril said desperately. "He was just trying to help me, weren't you, Harry?"

The holo-figure turned his attention squarely on me and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for my reaction. As eager as I was to defend myself, I had always been more logical than Bril. The Empire scared me, as it would any citizen, but I still wasn't sure I'd earned their ire.

If I'd become a target for the Empire to put down, why would they bother making contact? A predator doesn't play with its prey, and the Empire was the greatest predator in the galaxy. At most, I may have only inconvenienced them, or maybe that was just what I hoped was the case.

"How do you know our names?" I asked. Next to me, Bril sucked in a breath. No doubt he expected me to throw myself on the floor and beg forgiveness, but I wasn't about to do that. If we were to have any chance of living through this, it wouldn't be by playing the victim. The Empire would tolerate no weakness.

"As the Keeper for Imperial Intelligence, information is my business," was all the balding man said. Evidently, he was in the business of gathering information, rather than sharing it.

A long beat of silence stretched between us. He stared at me. I stared back. He was evaluating me, of that much I was certain, though I had no idea what for. All I knew is that one wrong move would find both myself and Bril in an early grave.

"Bril's right," I conceded quietly, trying to keep the fear from showing in my voice. "I had no idea that he was an Agent of Imperial Intelligence. How could I? The Empire is supposed to stand for law and order, and your agent was going to do something terrible, something that I think is supposed to be illegal in the Empire."

Perhaps I was pushing my luck making accusations, but I was right. Maybe there are very few recognisable laws on Nar Shaddaa beyond 'Don't piss off a Hutt,' but I couldn't help but feel that an Agent of the Empire should at the very least hold up the values they're meant to represent. Plus, I was still furious over what nearly happened.

The man pinched the bridge of his nose, honestly looking distressed for a moment before collecting himself. "The man you killed was a trainee agent, and the Empire will not mourn his passing. He was a failure as an agent, and the fact that he died engaging in such an act is evidence of his failure."

If the man wasn't clearly testing me, I might have let out a sigh of relief. Since he was, I had to remain impassive. But even if I couldn't show it, I'd never felt such a sensation of relief in my whole life. Like I'd suspected, it meant that the Empire didn't want me dead for taking an asset from them - most likely, all they wanted was their credits.

"Nevertheless, his death leaves us in quite a predicament," Keeper said.

"You want your credits back," I guessed.

Keeper remained silent for a few moments, still looking into me as though he could tell everything he needed to know from just a glance.

"What I want is for the Empire's credits to be put to the right use," he corrected. "I didn't send a trainee agent to a Hutt's smuggler's moon with a case full of credits for no reason."

That made sense. As a moon in the middle of the Outer Rim, Nar Shaddaa was hardly the place to be sending Imperial Agents, especially with so many credits. He was obviously on a mission, a mission I'd interrupted.

As quickly as the relief came, it left. The Empire might not have been upset about the loss of its trainee Agent, but they most definitely would be about the failure of a mission, especially in a location where the Empire's presence is almost non-existent, where their problem would be more difficult to solve.

"So what happens now?" Bril asked, though it came out as more of a high-pitched squeak.

"Ideally, another agent would come to collect the credits and finish the mission, but that will not be possible in this case. The mission is time sensitive - by the time another agent reaches Nar Shaddaa, the opportunity will have passed. Fortunately, I believe there is somebody already on world capable of completing the task," Keeper said, his eyes still fixed firmly on me.

"Well, that's good then, isn't it?" Bril asked, looking confused. For a moment he seemed to think the problem would solve itself, but then he saw how Keeper remained focused on me.

"You're talking about me?" I asked with a slight choke. "What do I know about secret missions for the Empire?"

"You might be surprised. I was quite impressed with your actions to reach Bril'valla once events spiralled out of your control. I believe you have the necessary skills. Indeed, you may find that it'll be far easier than what you've already done today," Keeper said.

How long was he watching?

"What actions?" Bril asked slowly. "What did he do to get here that makes him so qualified?"

"As a trainee agent, the man you killed had his every action under surveillance, though he had no knowledge of the fact," Keeper added the latter quietly, the fact going unsaid that if he'd known, he may still be alive. "As such, I knew of you from the moment you made him a target."

At that, Keeper's figure disappeared from the holotransmitter, to be replaced by a glowing blue surveillance video. It was an image from the populated square with Zorbo's statue, where I first laid eyes on the trainee Imperial Agent. After a moment, the image shifted, and the video followed the agent guiding Bril along the streets, with me following inconspicuously behind. They'd even seen the secret message that Bril had tried to convey, not that I'd used it to reach him.

Bril gasped when the image showed me jumping between the buildings and shimmying off the edge of the building. Somehow, seeing it through surveillance videos was just as terrifying than when I'd actually done it. It looked so much like I wouldn't make it, but it was as if the polluted air itself had lent itself to my cause and carried me to safety.

When Keeper's figure returned, I could sense the frown on Bril's face without even turning to see it. No doubt he didn't like seeing the risk I'd taken to reach him. For me, the biggest risk was to take no risk, especially given that it was my fault he was in such a bad situation to begin with.

"Your dedication was admirable, but it was the quick-thinking and calm under pressure that caught my eye. Our agents undergo years of hard training to react to a bad situation the way that you did, and some never manage to overcome their weaker instincts."

Not that I didn't enjoy the compliments, but they felt rather unearned. Calm under pressure? I was terrified the entire time. Not for myself, but for what would happen if I was to fail. Even if Keeper thought I could accomplish his mission, whatever it would be, I was not so sure.

"What if I were to decide not to do what you ask?" I asked uncertainly. Even not looking at him, I felt Bril tense up by my side. It was hard to blame him. I was trying not to show my fear, but my heart was beating a mile a minute. The Empire didn't exactly have the reputation of being merciful, and having my own choice in the matter may not have been an option.

But Keeper didn't act like it. "You'd be free to carry on your lives as usual, after an Imperial representative comes to collect our credits, of course."

My eyes narrowed. "Just like that? You'd let us go after the death of one of your agents?"

At that, Bril grabbed me on the shoulder and froze me in place with his wide blue eyes, silently asking me if I had a death-wish. Perhaps he was right to think so, but I couldn't help but feel that it would be naïve of me to just take this stranger, an official from Imperial Intelligence, at his word. We'd inconvenienced the Empire, maybe not in a big way, but an inconvenience nonetheless. It would be foolish to believe we could escape without repercussions.

But again, Keeper disputed that. "And why not? You were quite right about the illegality of our trainee agent's actions. The Empire does not tolerate the breaking of its laws, even by those purported to represent said Empire. By showing us his great failings, you've in fact done us a favour."

Bril nodded, turning to smile at me in relief. Still, I was less than trusting. "So we could just walk away? Go back to our lives?"

The corner of Keeper's mouth upturned, almost like he was amused by our mistrust. "I think you've misunderstood my intentions. The offer to complete the mission is an opportunity, not a method of escaping a punishment that I have no intention of ordering."

An opportunity?

"The Empire can be quite grateful, I think you'll find. Grateful enough to organise safe passage off-world and a new, comfortable life on Dromund Kaas, our Capital city."

A way off Nar Shaddaa…

It was definitely enough to pique my interest. I still had misgivings about trusting the man, but now it at least felt like there was a worthwhile reward. More than worthwhile, in reality. In what could be a single afternoon's work, we might accomplish the very goal that we'd been after almost all our lives.

"And Bril's mother? Her as well?" I asked, noting the grateful look in Bril's eye out of my peripheral vision. Personally, I didn't particularly care were Keeper to say that she had to remain behind, except that Bril wouldn't leave without her, and I wouldn't leave without him.

"Assuming that you accept and successfully complete the mission."

I let out a long, deep sigh. "What would we have to do?"

* * *

The dark of night was only just lifting the next morning when I left the Hotel, and I had to stifle a yawn as I stepped out onto the wide street. I'd have preferred to have left even earlier, if not for the fact that Nar Shaddaa's many gangs still prowled the streets late into the night. If I wanted to survive, that meant waiting for sunrise.

For the first time since I arrived on Nar Shaddaa, Bril wasn't by my side. He'd be furious about it when he finally woke up, but it was worth it if it meant keeping him out of danger. I'd already put him through enough. He'd be safer sleeping back in the hotel room than out on the streets with me.

In truth, Bril would likely be angry that I'd decided to complete the mission in the first place, let alone that I left him behind. After explaining the task in full, Keeper had been surprisingly understanding and allowed the two of us to discuss the idea in private. After seeing how they'd managed to find footage of everything that I'd done to get to Bril, I highly doubted that any of our conversation would actually be 'private.' As a result, I'd had to urge Bril to be very careful about what he said, especially since he didn't think completing the mission for the Empire would be a good idea.

There was logic in his decision. Despite how much we both wanted to get off Nar Shaddaa, the Empire's reputation had to be considered. If even a quarter of the stories we'd heard about the Empire and its Sith Lords were true… well, they'd be enough to put anyone off. With Keeper more than likely listening in, he couldn't say as much in words, but he still made his opinion clear. After spending nearly every single moment together for so many years, we could probably have a full conversation with just a few words.

But honestly, I feared staying on Nar Shaddaa as much as I did the Empire. The fact was, Bril and I were only just managing to survive, and that was only due to our age and our innocent appearance. What would happen once we got a little older, and pick-pocketing became that much more difficult? I'd end up working for one of Zorbo's gangs, and probably wind up with a blaster bolt between the eyes. Bril, with his flawless good looks, would be put to work for Lady Kallis. That was unacceptable to me, and the fact remained that despite our best efforts, there was no guarantee we would ever save enough credits to get off-world.

Even if the offer was a ruse and they were just going to kill us, it was no greater risk than continuing with our normal lives. If all I had to do to prevent that fate was convince some random droid engineer to work for the Empire instead of the Republic, then so be it.

Of course, I still had to actually do that, and I highly doubted it would be as simple as it sounded. For one thing, he was already planning to leave that very day, heading to Coruscant to work for the Republic. For another, I was going to have to travel three districts away to find the guy.

That alone was no trivial matter. I'd never once left Zorbo's district before, and I didn't have the credits needed to do it easily. On any other planet, it probably wouldn't have been a significant issue. On Nar Shaddaa, however, the Hutts lined their pockets by ensuring that even basic services were expensive.

Fortunately, the port wasn't too far from the hotel, just a few minutes walk. At this time it likely wouldn't be too busy, most people either still asleep or preparing for their day. That was both good and bad. Good, because even if I got a ticket for transport, I wouldn't have to waste time standing in line, and bad, because without a crowd, it would be harder to actually get a ticket. I certainly couldn't afford one, and it would be that much more difficult to steal one without a crowd to mask my presence.

It would have been easier if Keeper had relented and let me use some of the credits from the case, but he'd been clear that it wasn't an option. Every single on of them was to be offered to the Droid Engineer.

"Creative problem-solving is expected of any Imperial Agent, young Harry," he'd said. "I'm sure you can find a way."

Now, without Bril, that didn't seem so simple. But I would, and could, do it without him being put into any more danger. I owed him that much.

I arrived at the port just as the transport was settling into the dock. The battered grey speeder looked older than the planet, and the phlegmy thrumming of its rear propulsors didn't exactly inspire confidence. It couldn't have been more than 40 feet long, a fraction of the size you'd see for a transport on a civilized world.

But the dodgy state of the speeder wasn't nearly as concerning as the announcement that came over the port speakers upon it's arrival. Five minutes. Five minutes is all I would have to find a ticket and get on. After that, it wouldn't return for several hours. By that time, the droid engineer might have already left.

The passengers getting off the transport were the only people I could possibly target for a ticket. There was nobody yet waiting to get on the speeder, nobody I could possibly pickpocket in time to make it. More than that, of those getting off the transport, none looked like the sort I would normally choose to rob. They seemed wealthy enough, certainly, but none were alone, and a couple of them were even likely armed. And I didn't even have Bril there to distract them.

I didn't have the luxury of choice. I had to choose one of them to rob, no matter the risk.

Of all of them, the young couple that lagged behind the others were the best targets. The man didn't have an air of intimidation and danger like so many of the gang members that roamed the planet, and the woman he was with looked more like a tourist than a street-wizened Nar Shaddaa courtesan.

I immediately set after them as they went to leave the port. Without Bril, I had no choice but to keep it simple. Careful to keep my footsteps inaudible, I darted my hand out towards the man's pocket. But I was panicked without my long-time partner there to help, and my hand grazed the man's thigh. Even if it didn't, the woman gasped, probably seeing my hand out of her peripheral vision.

The man grabbed my wrist in a steely grip and scowled down at me. "You little shit!" he spat. "You think you can steal from me?"

I tried to pull away, but the man had me in a death-grip and didn't have any intention of letting go. But I still had the case in my other hand, and instinctively swung it up and into the side of the man's head. With a solid thud the corner of the case met it's target, and the man dropped to the ground.

I didn't hang around. The woman had begun to scream out for help, and I could see a great hulking alien coming at me from further down the street. From the size of him, he was probably an enforcer for Zorbo, and what basically passed for law enforcement in the district.

I went running back towards the port, ducking around the side of the building rather than into the main waiting area for the transports. It was a dead-end. The alley next to the building was walled off, and the edge of the district was fenced off on my other side.

I poked my head back the way I'd come, cursing to myself when I saw the enforcer reach the screaming woman. If I walked out, he'd catch me immediately, but the tall wall prevented me from continuing down the alleyway. I took a deep, calming breath.

It was the sound of flowing water that proved to be my redemption. When I looked over the fence to find it's source, I found a pipe hanging out past the edge, just a small drop over the edge. It was rusted and old and the smell even from above was horrifying, but it was the only way out.

Keeping as tight a grip on the case of credits as I could, I climbed the fence and dropped down to the top of the pipe. I nearly slid off it's rounded top half, but after some swaying on balancing, managed to keep my feet. The entrance to the pipe was small, but luckily so was I, and I managed to swing inside and onto my stomach, dragging the case along beside me.

Even growing up on Nar Shaddaa couldn't prepare me for the stench of it. I didn't even have a spare hand to block my nose, carrying the case as I was. Somehow I managed to get through it, pulling myself through the tight gap until I was below a grate in the floor of a men's bathroom.

I heard the echoing voice of the port announcer through the grate announce only two minutes before the transport left.

Hesitation was my enemy right now. I lifted the heavy metal grate up and off to the side where it clattered on the floor. I climbed out of the tight gap, moving awkwardly as the blaster hidden in my waistband got caught on the edge of the pipe.

The blaster.

I'd forgotten about it completely, but it could be the key to my getting a pass-chip to the transport. I didn't need to rely on pickpocketing, with that.

Armed robbery would require a completely different set of skills than what I was used to. I'd trained for years to make myself as unnoticeable as possible, but that wouldn't help me now. I'd not only have to be visible by my target, but authoritative too, to make a target believe that I was calling the shots, and would back up my threats without hesitation.

Not exactly my forte, but at least now I knew what it felt like to shoot and kill someone. That would have to be training enough. I didn't want to have to do it again, but if I could be threatening enough, I wouldn't have to.

"What are you doing?" The voice from behind me had me almost jumping out of my skin. When I turned, a male Sullustan was standing in front of the urinal, his gaze moving from my face to the case in my hands and down to the grate on the floor.

"Did you just steal that?"

The opportunity was too good to pass up. I didn't have the time to look for another mark to rob at the end of a blaster, but the Sullustan didn't look poor himself, and the fact that he was at the port at all meant that he probably had either a pass-chip or the means to get one.

I reached for the blaster and held it out in front of me in both hands. It felt awkward, but I managed to contain my shakiness this time, determined to look as threatening as possible. "Don't move. Keep your hands where I can see them," I said.

I'd tried to put as much menace into it as possible, but my voice was still too youthful, and many octaves too high to be intimidating. The Sullustan laughed. "Kid, don't even bother trying. You even know how to use that thing?"

I scowled and lifted the blaster higher, aiming it towards his head. "I won't ask again," I said.

The Sullustan smiled a toothy grin and took a step closer.

I fired. It was all it took for the illusion of my control to slip.

I'd meant to fire it past him, to scare him into submission. I hadn't. The blaster bolt had struck him in the side of the throat, and the man dropped to the ground, sputtering and coughing up thick red blood. He began clawing at his throat, as if he could fix the damage with desperate hands.

I simply stood across the bathroom from him, stunned still.

"The transport will be leaving in one minute," the voice spoke over the speaker system. It was enough to have me moving.

I blinked back the brewing tears in my eyes and nearly tripped as I moved over towards him, trying to keep my mind on track. When I crouched down over him and reached for his pockets, he grabbed the collar of my shirt and stared at me with wide, terrified eyes.

I let out an undignified yelp and fired the blaster into his stomach again and again, until all that could be heard in the bathroom was the clicking of the trigger of the now out of ammunition blaster.

I vomited over his now very dead body, but managed to collect myself enough to rummage through his pockets and grab a pass-chip. It's hard to describe how it made me feel. My mind was racing, and yet totally blank. I felt guilty, and nothing at all.

I numbly left the bathroom and headed towards the transport, which was beginning to fire back to life. I got there just in time for the port officer to scan my pass-chip. I was covered in filth from the pipe, and now my hands had traces of blood and my own vomit, but the port officer motioned for me to go past.

I stepped onto the transport and dropped into the nearest seat, swallowing down another surge of vomit. The Sullustan was in my mind's eye. His dead body, lying on the floor with slowly spreading blood and covered in my vomit. The way the light had left his eyes. The desperation in his face as he'd grabbed me…

I grabbed at my face, trying to will myself back to reality. It was done. I couldn't afford to dwell on what had happened. I still had a job to do, and my reasons for doing it hadn't changed.

The transport picked up off the ground and away from the port, headed towards the Hutt District. What I'd done was awful, but not for no reason. If I could convince the droid engineer to go to the Empire, maybe it would be justified.

I had a good feeling it would work out. Bril and I could live happy, and I'd never have to run for my life or threaten someone else's ever again. Things were going to work out.

What a fool I was…

* * *

**Notes**

I hope you guys enjoyed Chapter 3. It took longer than I wanted getting it to you, but the chapter itself actually ended up getting cut in half with the next one, else it would have been about 10k words.

Thanks for everyone who has followed/favourited/reviewed especially.

Just so you all know, though I might be repeating myself, Harry will be magic in this fic. I'm treating HP magic and the force as two completely separate things, and all will become clear in time.

Also, just so you're aware, there will be a bit of a time jump after the next chapter.

Feel free to ask me any questions about this fic or any of my others that you like, and I'll do my best to answer quickly.

Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Since I'd only ever been in Zorbo's district, I had it in my mind that all the districts of Nar Shaddaa would look exactly the same. That couldn't have been further from the truth. For all that Zorbo's district was dirty, crime-ridden and often enough terrifying, the Cartel district that housed the droid expert I was looking for was so much worse worse. Since it was physically lower, the air felt thicker with pollution, clogging the nostrils with the acrid stench of filth and urine. Had Bril and I had grown up _there_ instead of Zorbo's district, we never would have survived.

Despite the mid-morning sunshine, the Cartel district was also far darker than Zorbo's. As a result, the streets looked grungier and felt more dangerous, enough that the hairs on my arms were on constant alert. No matter that I could detect nobody following me, I looked backwards often, and gave side-alleys a wide berth. I would doubtless have been nervous anyway, but it didn't help that I was carrying a case full of the Empire's credits. It wasn't until I realized my fear would make me a target that I managed to clamp down on my emotions with a ruthless focus and cold logic.

The bigger problem was simply that I needed to find my way to the scientist, and though I had the name of the street he lived on, that I could barely read made that task even more difficult. Under other circumstances I might have asked for directions, but even those on Nar Shaddaa who weren't career criminals lacked the basic sense of morality prevalent on inner rim worlds, and even that would be a risk. It forced me to read what symbols and attempt to infer the rest. I'd never considered before that point just how important a skill it was, but I vowed to myself that if the mission was successful, I would learn to read.

In the end, I gave up on trying to find him through reading the street signs. I could only make out a few letters anyway, and I'd already wasted what was likely several hours trying to reach him. Using my intuition was the better method. Keeper had given me valuable information about the droid engineer, information that might be useful to reach him.

_So what do I know?_

I knew that he was on Nar Shaddaa working on combat droids that he could sell to the Hutt Cartel. That meant he would have to be close enough to the Cartel that they could offer him their protection if he needed it, and on Nar Shaddaa, he definitely would. So, probably he would be located in the main area of the Cartel district, where some of the most prominent members of the Hutt Cartel were. If I was right, that narrowed down my search window a little, but not enough.

Droids. If the man was a renowned droid engineer and working on combat droids for the cartel, then I should probably have been looking for the mechanical beings themselves. I knew of a droid mechanic on Zorbo's district whose business looked more like a scrapyard than a mechanics station, so I would have to keep an eye out for something like that, too.

I could use the holotransmitter to get back into contact with Keeper, too, but I didn't want to do that. Just like throughout the entire conversation with the enigmatic man, I was being tested now, too. Probably he was watching me every step of the way, watching with keen interest how I would complete his task. If I was going to do it, I should do it without the help he'd already offered.

So I had only vague information to go on, but it was better than nothing. I made off towards the main sector of the Cartel district, more like an open square with numerous Hutt statues than streets, and going over several open floors.

My luck was, surprisingly, holding out. I hadn't been in the area long before I spotted what looked to be a closed up storefront, its front window boarded up and its neon lights dull and unlit. It wouldn't have stood out at all, if not for the two formidable droids guarding its front door. Both were holding blaster rifles, and were covered in metal plating that looked tough enough to repel a blaster bolt, especially the smaller ones like from my stolen blaster.

But no matter how intimidating they were, twice my size and probably able to snap my neck like a twig, it would not deter me. I had too much riding on the success of my task to be driven away by fear, and I'd already come this far. Cautiously, I stepped closer to the droids. I might have been reluctant to ask another _person _if I was in the right place, but droids were different. Artificial Intelligence or not, the rules of their creator still bound droids, and I found it unlikely that these droids would kill me for approaching or asking a question. If that were the case, they might have opened fire on any simple passerby.

"Stop, human!" one droid said in with a metallic voice when I was a little closer. "This unit is ordered to protect these premises."

I stopped, holding my hands out in front of me where the droids could see them. "I'm looking for the master droid builder, Koram Roth. Am I in the right place?"

The droid looked me up and down, the mechanisms in his metallic neck whirring with movement. "Master Koram Roth is not seeing visitors today. Leave now, or we will fire upon you."

_At least I found the right place._

I took a slow step backwards, but only one. I wasn't about to leave, despite the fact that the droid would probably act on the threat if he needed to. To my mind, there had to be some command that the droid would have to let me through the door. What if it were a Hutt, asking for entry to see the droids he had asked for? The droid would let him through, so if I made it seem like I was important enough…

"I have a case of credits here for him," I said quietly, only just loud enough for the droids to hear. The last thing I needed was for some random to walk by and hear me say it and get robbed so close to my target.

The droid lifted his rifle and aimed it at my face, unerring with how steady he could keep it. "Master Koram Roth is not seeing visitors today. Leave now, or we will fire upon you." I was terrified, but determined to stand my ground. It seemed unfathomable that I could get so far only to fail at the end. I was so sure that there had to be _something _I could say for the droid to let me through.

Then it hit me that if the droid builder was about to leave for the Republic, and on that day, no less, then perhaps he really _wasn__'t _allowing visitors. The Hutt Cartel wouldn't take kindly to his leaving, and perhaps he didn't want to risk them finding him packing up his belongings so he could get away without interruptions.

_Wait, if that__'s true…_

"I'm here as a representative for the Republic," I said, still only loud enough for the droid to hear. "I'm here to discuss terms of employment with Koram Roth." Almost immediately, the droid lowered the weapon and held it close to it's chest. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Master Koram Roth will see you now," he said, stepping out of the way of the front door to the dilapidated building.

The thick metal door behind the droid opened with a slight hiss, and I could hear hydraulics sliding along its back side. The building may have appeared dilapidated from the outside, but that was all a front. If the droid hadn't allowed me inside, there was no way I would break through that level of security.

Inside, the dilapidated visage fell completely, giving way to a long hallway of wires and pipes, some sparking with activity. There was a hum from inside of the walls, probably the voltage from all the energy needed to run such a place. There was only a thin path along the ground to walk through, with all other floor space taken up by scrap metal and droid parts.

The hall was decently long and seemed to lead slowly down underneath the main building above. It only made me more certain that the closed shop above was a front for the droid laboratory located underneath. Soon though, it led into a wide open space, a room filled with countless machines, half-built droids and what looked like an infinite number of thick electrical wires. None of it was organized in any sense of the word. Placement was haphazard, and there looked to be hundreds of half-completed droids located around the room.

In the corner were several completed ones, tall combat droids like the ones outside. Behind them was a man, human and middle-aged with graying hair and a slightly hunched back. He was shoveling equipment into a small suitcase, most likely packing for his trip to Coruscant. If I had my way, that suitcase would instead be headed to Dromund Kaas.

When I approached, I could hear the man muttering under his breath. "Representative from the Republic," he was repeating, still throwing things haphazardly into his case, seemingly at random. "Terms of employment?"

"Uhh, Hi," I said loudly, startling the man so much that he stumbled back from his case, knocking over a half-finished droid and sending scrap metal flying everywhere.

_What a ball of nerves__…_

If he was muttering about me being a representative from the Republic, and about the fake terms of his employment, then clearly he knew that I was there. So why then was he so terrified? Still, if he was emotional and frightened, it might just make him more easy to convince, so that was definitely and advantage for me.

He turned to face me. I couldn't help my shock at his appearance. He was almost more machine than man, with both eyes replaced by metallic prosthetics and his left forearm like a combat droids. Half his chest was covered with metal plates, and his body whirred as he moved.

"You-You're not a representative from the Republic," he stuttered, eyeing me with suspicion. "You're a street kid."

With a deep breath, I willed myself to be calm. He was surrounded by several of his combat droids, all armed to the teeth, and all of them easily capable of killing me in the blink of an eye. I had to be very careful about what I said. If he was loyal to the Republic already, then revealing that I was there to convince him to join the Empire might be wasted effort, and he'd probably just kill me.

"Actually, no. I'm here to talk to you on behalf of the Sith Empire."

The man jumped slightly, letting out a little frightened squeak. "The Sith Empire?" he repeated, seemingly to himself. "No no no no no. This wasn't how it was meant to happen." With no sort of voice command, his droids all lifted their weapons, aimed directly at me.

_Uh-oh_

"I'm here with an offer," I said, doing my best to act unperturbed by the weapons. "I know that you've agreed to work for the Republic. I'm here to request that you instead give your service to the Empire."

"No no," he said, now visibly shaking. "The Empire is bad, very bad."

"What makes you say that?" I asked. It was probably a stupid question, but I wanted to understand the man's motives. It didn't take a genius to recognize that he had a few issues, so the way I saw it, understanding him might make the task easier.

"Sith attacked the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Killed many Jedi," he said.

"And that was bad?" I asked curiously. "You like the Jedi?"

The man nodded. "Jedi preserve knowledge. Knowledge is very important."

"Is that why you wanted to work for the Republic? Because they preserve knowledge?"

Unexpectedly, the man shook his head firmly. "No. The Republic offered me many credits. Need credits to complete my work," he explained.

_Money. _Probably the most common reason for anybody doing anything in the entire galaxy. No doubt Keeper knew this man's motivations when he sent an agent here with a case full of credits and a promise for more if he decided to work for the Empire. With a motivation like money, I could turn the situation to my advantage.

"I see. Well, what if I were to tell you that the Empire is willing to offer you _more _credits, in order to continue your work?"

The man hesitated, thinking it over. "But the Empire is bad," he said, this time far more uncertain. Clearly, the offer of credits was well enough to tempt him into breaking his contract.

"Are they? Is it bad to offer you money to keep doing what you love?" I asked.

Koram Roth's eyebrows drew together in deep thought, his metallic eyes spinning in his eye sockets. "No, not bad. But Sith Empire has killed many people."

The lure of money didn't look to be enough to convince him. He was tempted, but the reputation of the Empire was still firmly in his mind. It was a common opinion - after all, it was the very reason Bril didn't think I should even be there. But that reputation might just be of use to me as well. If money wasn't enough, then perhaps money _and _fear.

"And so have the Republic. People die in wars. You're an intelligent man though, do you think that the Empire is likely to lose to the Republic?" I asked.

After another brief moment's hesitation, he shook his head again. "No, the Empire is stronger. But bad, very bad," he repeated.

"But consider this… If you do go and work for the Republic, and then the Empire wins, what do you think will happen to you?"

"Nothing. I don't fight against the Empire," he said.

"No, if you side with the Republic, then you are the enemy of the Empire. I think you know what the Empire does to its enemies, don't you?" I said, trying to put just the hint of a threat in my voice.

Koram shivered from the thought of it. "Yes, have heard many stories. The Empire scares me."

I nodded firmly in agreement. "The Empire doesn't have to be scary. The Empire can be very generous, I think you'll find," I said, repeating the words Keeper had used on me the day before. "All you have to do is agree to work for the Empire, and you'll be funded enough and looked after enough to keep working on your droids forever."

At that, I clicked open the case of credits from the Empire and showed its contents to Koram Roth, whose eyes lit up with greed and desperation. I had him. We could be free.

* * *

Getting back to Zorbo's district was far easier than leaving it had been. That was probably because I'd already done the work in getting the transport token from the Sullustan, which worked just as well in getting back as it had getting out. That meant I could get back to the hotel with just as much ease. The difficulty of Nar Shaddaa was over.

The Trandoshan bouncer who had stopped me the day before let me through easily this time, though now I had the room key stolen from the trainee Imperial Agent. I was so excited to tell Bril about what had happened. Once Koram Roth agreed to work for the Empire, I contacted Keeper through the holo-transmitter. He praised my work, and promised to hold up his end of the deal.

But my good mood wasn't meant to last. When I opened the hotel room door, Bril was nowhere to be found. In a panic I checked the bathroom, but all that lay inside was the dead body of the Imperial Agent. The stink was awful. I didn't think for a moment that Bril would have left. I thought for certain that he would wait for me to return, even if only so he could chew me out for going at all.

_Surely he wouldn__'t go back to Lady Kallis empty-handed…_

As soon as the thought entered my head, I knew that it was what he'd probably done. Bril was intelligent, but whenever he started to panic, he needed support. I should have guessed that it might happen. I'd disappeared on him, and he'd panicked. If I wasn't there to help him, that only left…

_Oh shit. _

I broke into a sprint out of the hotel, making a bee-line towards the House of Plom Bloom. Normally I was thrilled when the streets were crowded for the advantage of our pick-pocketing, but that day I was cursing loudly as I pushed my way through the people, desperate to get to my foolish friend in time.

I had tears in my eyes by the time I reached the Brothel. Things were meant to be perfect, but they were far from. Why did Bril have to be so stupid? If he'd just waited for me, we could have been planning to get his mother out of the Brothel and we'd be off Nar Shaddaa. Instead, I was entering the Brothel, deathly afraid that I'd find my worst fear.

That's exactly what I found.

The first person I saw in the back of the brothel was Bril's mother, and she had silent tears sliding down her face. Normally she always looked cold and emotionless, so her tears told me that something terrible had happened. Sure enough, when I could see more, I felt my heart nearly break in two.

Bril was on the floor, covered in his own blue hued blood. His normally stunning face was lumpy and broken, his breaths coming in ragged gasps and choking on his own blood. One of the large, familiar bouncers stood over him, his fists bruised and bloody. Lady Kallis was nearby, looking at my lifelong best friend with something akin to sick glee.

I never hated anybody more in my life than I did her in that moment.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I screamed with all my being, sliding along the floor until I was kneeling next to him, my tears spilling onto his swollen face.

One of his eyes was swollen shut, and the other was vague and unfocused, but turned to look into my eyes. His mouth moved like he was trying to say something, but he just choked, more of his blood spilling over his lips.

I grabbed his hand tight, grateful to feel him squeeze mine in return. "I'm going to get you help. I'll make you good again," I sputtered, my vision becoming cloudy from tears. He gripped my hand tight for a moment, doing his best to look at me through his compromised eye.

"The boy needed to learn a lesson," Lady Kallis said calmly from Bril's other side. "Some lessons need to be learned the hard way."

If I wasn't holding Bril's hand and trying to comfort him, her words would have caused me to lunge for her throat. It would be a terrible idea. Her bouncers would have me dead in a matter of moments, perhaps not even enough time for me to have even reached her. Still, I didn't want to just sit there and let her stand there worry-free. She'd ruined everything, and she had to _pay. _

Bril would die, and I didn't care if I had to die with him.

I ignored Lady Kallis, murmuring comforts to Bril. I felt dead inside already, a complete change from how I'd felt not an hour beforehand. Leaving Nar Shaddaa meant nothing now, not if I would have to leave without Bril. He was the main reason I wanted to get off, anyway. Bril had done _everything _for me when I first arrived on Nar Shaddaa - was the only reason I stayed alive. I was too young to do anything for myself, too young to steal, too young to survive on the streets. But Bril had offered me half of everything he had, and he didn't have much.

I owed him everything, and I'd given him nothing.

Bril's breaths were getting shallower and shallower, and I was wracking my brain trying to think of something to do. Even if I _could _have gotten him to a healer in time, which was a big if, there wasn't a healer on Nar Shaddaa who would've seen him without payment upfront, and I had nothing. There was nothing I could do but sit and watch him slowly die in front of me.

"I hope you have my payment today, boy," Lady Kallis said. "Come to that, two days' payments, since you never came back last night."

"I'll kill you," I whispered, but my voice came out completely emotionless.

"What did you just say to me, boy?"

I couldn't just sit there and watch Bril die. I would die with him. That was all I could offer him now. Maybe there was an afterlife, and I could join him there. If all I could do for him was erase his loneliness, then that's what I would do.

I snatched the empty blaster from behind my back and threw it at her, quick as I could. I should have taken an extra second or two. The blaster's heavy metal handle struck her, but barely, just enough to graze along her cheek. She screamed out in shocked pain and fell back.

Before I could fire again, I was tackled from the side by one of her bouncers, his large form forcing me onto the ground. He wrapped his large, muscular hands around my throat and began to squeeze, forcing the breath from my lungs.

"KILL THAT KID!" I heard Kallis screech.

I wanted to die along with Bril, but not as much as I wanted to kill Lady Kallis. But that was impossible. Rage filled me, and energy flooded my body. I wanted to kill her so badly. More than I wanted to kill the Imperial Agent. More than I ever wanted to get off Nar Shaddaa. I would have chopped off a limb to watch her die.

I tried to scream, but nothing came out.

But something else happened. My body was flooded with enormous energy, but not with muscle or anything I could use to throw the bouncer off me. Instead, the back wall of the brothel exploded inwards, flooding the room with debris and knocking everyone off their feet with the force of it. The bouncer was thrown off me, and I coughed and hacked the breath back into my lungs.

It was the only chance I had to finish the job. Whatever had happened wasn't going to save me, because instead of running, I would try to kill Lady Kallis.

Or I would have, if not for Bril.

He reached out and grabbed my ankle, squeezing it with as much force as his broken body would allow. I looked down at him, watching his mouth try to form words once more. Still, he was choking rather than speaking, his mouth filled with blood.

"Live," he got out.

I stared at him in shock.

"Live," he said a second time.

"Kill that boy!" Lady Kallis screamed again.

There was no time to decide. I wanted to die, but Bril wanted me to live. For him, I would. My heart broken completely, I left Bril lying there on the ground, slowly dying.

* * *

I fled, my mind in a blur. I was barely aware of my surroundings as my feet brought me back to the droid-shop. As we left Nar Shaddaa behind, I made myself a solemn vow.

I would have my revenge.

* * *

**Notes**

Wow, I have been on a writing _roll _this week. Two chapters of two different stories finished from beginning to end within one week is about unheard of for me, and I still have more in me yet!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed Chapter 4. The real story begins from now, now that Harry is off Nar Shaddaa. There will be a time skip after this chapter, just by a few years when Harry has some training under his belt. Hogwarts is still a little ways down the road, but only a few chapters, really.

I'm a bit uncertain about the characterization of Koram Roth. I was going for a kind of socially awkward savant, with perhaps a bit of a developmental disorder. He will come back into the story a bit down the track, so I want to get it right. (Not that he will ever be a huge character).

Thanks to all those who are following/favouriting and definitely those who have reviewed. I'm really into looking at the stats and seeing how many are reading the story, so it's good to see how many are following and stuff.

Thanks guys and I'll see you in Chapter 5


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_2 Years Later_

It was nearly time - the very night before what might be the most important day in my life. My last official day as a trainee Imperial Agent, the day that I might drop the trainee moniker for good. One test - a grueling test, perhaps - and it would be over. Two years of non-stop learning, combat training and cut-throat cunning come to an end. But I couldn't relax, especially not today.

Getting a good read on my classmates was essential for the final test, and I couldn't let my focus slip now. I'd been watching them for two years, so I ought to have known just about everything about them. The problem was, they'd been watching me, too, and if they were smart, they'd have been putting on an act for everyone else just like I had been. Showing your hand to people that you might have to kill in the graduating exam was stupidly dangerous, so all twenty of us should have been reluctant to reveal our strengths.

But unless I was mistaken, that wasn't the case. I'd watched day in and day out the rest of my classmates perform their very best in every test, in every combat practice, on every shooting range. I'd done differently. I'd deliberately underperformed every single time. When it came time to fight my soon-to-be former classmates, I didn't want them to have any idea what I was capable of.

It was a plan two years in the making, from the very first lesson when the instructors had told us to be careful of the friends we made. They never mentioned it again, but of all the lessons learned since coming to Dromund Kaas, I'd taken that the most seriously. Though really, I probably would have been cautious, anyway. After Nar Shaddaa, I didn't _want _friends. Friends meant pain. So instead of trying to make allies amongst my classmates, I focused on ways to destroy them.

An Imperial Agent doesn't have a name, only a designation. As trainees, they expected the same of us. Instead, we went by the number of our rankings from examinations. They knew me as seventeen, of only twenty. It was a careful, methodical choice rather than a realistic view of my abilities. The class started with thirty-five trainees, of varying ages and species, which meant that over the course of two years, fifteen had died. Unsurprisingly, each of those 15 had, at some point, fallen to last place - the weakest link.

Thus, I couldn't be so bad that I would be a target for the higher rankings, nor high enough to invite undue scrutiny. I wanted to fall in the middle of the pack, unremarkable in every way.

Number one was the leader of _that _group, unsurprisingly. Even if he'd bombed his exams, I, and everyone else, would know who the biggest threat amongst us was. One was Chiss, only a couple of years older than me, at sixteen, but ultimately the best that our class had to offer. He ticked all the boxes of a brilliant agent - skilled, attractive, unassuming… lethal. He was the competition, and always was, right from the first day of training. In two years of watching and waiting for a weakness to show up, I'd found only one, and it would not be easy to turn it against him.

There's a reason that pride is considered a sin, and if I had my way, it would cause One's downfall. The problem was, his pride was wall-earned. His marksmanship was beyond stellar, his mind terrifyingly keen, his instincts near-flawless. How does one use pride as a weapon against someone who is genuinely all that he's cracked up to be?

He was the very reason for my plan to perform badly in exams to begin with. If he was rank one, and I seventeen, why would he consider me a solid threat? I hoped that he wouldn't, and that his confidence would be his undoing.

Still, I had my doubts, and doubt can kill an Agent as easily as a weapon. The instructors had drilled into all of us not to act hastily. Every decision should be cold and calculated, which meant that any plan to confront Number One without a clear tactical advantage was a non-starter.

For that, I needed to put in the appropriate legwork. It was the only reason I was out so late, before the most important examination of my entire life, no less, skulking through the forests of Dromund Kaas towards the Imperial Academy main building. On any other day, I wouldn't have to sneak. I'd spent two years being educated there every single day, but now I wanted to remain unnoticed. First, because I was out after-hours and the building was locked up tight with patrolling security. Second, because I was there to find an advantage and ensure victory on the final exam. Even if - or perhaps especially if - such advantage was against the rules.

It wasn't my first time cheating, anyway. The fact was, the instructors at the Academy made us very aware that success was the only thing that mattered. As an Agent, the Empire would expect me to use any possible tactic to complete a mission. In pursuit of mission success, there was no such thing as "cheating." For example, my mission to remain a few places up from the bottom was facilitated by frequent break-ins to the examiner's office.

It was raining as I approached the offices. The first time I saw rain, I didn't know what to make of it. Nar Shaddaa never saw a drop, which was probably a good thing, since all the pollution would have made it acidic and poisonous. On Dromund Kaas, it rained all the time, and I grew to enjoy it. I loved the smell of oncoming rain in the mornings, and the way it kept everything on Dromund Kaas looking green and luscious.

I mostly loved rain because it masked my presence. Especially at night, the heavy rainfall was making me near impossible to see for all but those wearing thermal goggles, and I highly doubted that any of the patrolling guards had _those. _The surveillance cameras could see thermals, I knew, but I wasn't prone to making risky decisions, and I knew where every camera was and how to stay out of its view.

The best places were the corners of the building, where cameras were located high on the third floor, looking out and turning over a wide angle. That meant they couldn't see straight down, and I'd have a good ten second window between leaving the safety of the forest brush and reaching the point below the camera. That was _plenty._

_Now._

When the camera turned away, I sprinted forwards out of the thick forest, shifting my body weight to keep my movements as silent as possible. The guard patrolling this area wouldn't be back for another two minutes anyway, but getting caught risked being punished, and in the Agent academy, punishment was invariably fatal.

I made it underneath the camera's view with as much ease as ever, but the next part was always more troublesome, especially in the rain. The offices of the Imperial Academy were located in what might as well be just a big silver box with windows, with very few handholds or crevices to climb inside.

The main doors were all well protected by both guards and cameras, and though it might have been possible to knock the guards out and slice my way inside, it was a far more risky move than sneaking inside unnoticed, especially on the night before the final exam. So difficult though it was, I began to climb, slipping a toe here and a fingertip there to scale the outside wall to the closest window. The window was closed, but not so fully that I couldn't jam the blade of my vibroknife underneath and pull it upwards, enough that I could slip inside with no trouble.

I pulled my black hood down over my face as soon as I was inside. There was no way to avoid the cameras inside, I knew that much from experience, but so long as I kept my face covered there wasn't likely to be an issue. I always scrubbed the camera footage when I reached my goal anyway, but it was always better to play on the safe side.

I had to go through the watcher's training room to reach my target, a massive, open area filled with desks and computer terminals. All the watchers for Imperial Intelligence trained there, learning how to navigate and break into nearly every system in the galaxy, to assist the agents out in the field. Looking back, a watcher would have been behind all the footage of me from Nar Shaddaa, and handed it over to Keeper to make contact.

I kept my head down as I moved quietly through the dark, empty room towards the offices on the other side. The amount of times I'd been there after hours, now it was as familiar to me as breathing. Every step felt confident, every move planned and certain, just like the Academy had taught. It helped thatI was still small despite my age. I could slip into tighter spaces, and even in the larger spaces I was less likely to bump into the furniture, and less likely to set off any alarms.

The door to the office was protected by key-code, but thanks to the Empire's training it was nothing I couldn't handle. I pried the cover from the keypad with my vibroknife and began to slice my way inside. After a few moments, the electronic door slid open with a hiss, opening into a long dark hall beyond. If I hadn't done it so many times before, it might have taken longer, but I'd used the system to create a back-door entrance into the system for easy access. I didn't want to create my own password, just in case a watcher came across the forbidden access during a routine security sweep, but creating a source code to make the door open with a small energy surge wasn't too risky.

There was an office off the dark hallway for each of the Academy instructors, one for marksmanship, poisons, unarmed combat and so on. Fifteen offices, including one each for the overseer and his second in command. It was the Overseer's office that I wanted. It was the riskiest place to get caught, but as his office had access to every system, the only place that would let me perfectly clean up after myself. Instead of needing to slice into multiple computer terminals, I only needed to get into his.

I made my way inside the office the same as I had the hall beyond the watchers room, by prying off the keypad and giving it a small surge with my vibroknife. The office inside was large, but mostly empty except for a chair in front of a computer terminal, with a long window overlooking the entire Academy compound below. From his office he could see us throughout most of the day, whether we were at the shooting range, in the classroom or at the obstacle course.

The terminal was the only thing of interest to me. The Overseer was utterly meticulous, as most Chiss were, and there was no doubt he would have documented what I was looking for. Everything I ever needed, whether written exams or plans for a combat test, he organized appropriately in his systems. He encrypted all his data, but I'd long since learned to get around such things, thanks to his very own Academy's teachings.

I searched through his system with well-practiced ease. Unlike before, I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for. I needed something that would give me an edge over the other trainees, _especially _Number One. It could be anything. The location of the final exam, or perhaps knowledge of any equipment we'd be allowed to bring with us. Even the slightest advantage might be the difference between life and death.

What I found would not be just a _slight _advantage.

A three-dimensional map of the final exam arena rose out of the terminal at the push of a button, flooding the room with an ethereal blue glow. Even the least detailed map of the area would have proven useful, but organized as ever, the Overseers map showed every rising mountain, every ridge in the jungle, every place to hide. With the map, I could plan tactics for changing circumstances at any point in the exam, and have contingencies on contingencies.

It was far from a certain path to victory, but it was more than I hoped for. Along with Overseer's notes for the final exam to the map, and it was just what I needed to set myself up properly against Number One. According to the notes, all trainees would have access to only a single piece of equipment, from a selection of twenty. The problem was, the equipment was to be chosen in order of ranking, which meant I would be among the last. Some pieces would be next to useless amongst the jungle, and since only ten pieces of the equipment on offer were weapons, I would more than likely have to go in with only my wits and training as a defense.

It was a damned good thing I'd broken in to find out about the exam. With my low ranking, I'd not only not have had any advantage to fight the higher-ranked trainees on an even footing, but I'd have been at a distinct _disadvantage. _Frankly, the odds would have been so stacked against me that death would have been inevitable. At least now, I had a fighting chance.

The Overseer's office was sound protected, and I was so busy studying the map I wasn't paying attention to the security cameras like I should have been. The door was sliding open before I could even make a mad dash to hide against the wall. Then again, with Overseer's minimalistic decor, there was nothing to hide behind even if I'd had the time.

"Of all of them, I think you were about the last one I expected," a voice sounded from the door. It was female, which meant fortunately that it wasn't the Overseer. If it had been… well, it wouldn't have been good. Even if I was right, and the Academy expected us to cheat, getting caught at it would be considered sloppy enough to warrant my execution.

Still, getting caught at all, even if it was only by another trainee, wasn't a good thing. Number Six stared at me from the doorway with her icy blue eyes, her lithe human form a shadowy silhouette against the dimly lit hallway behind her. Like me, she was mostly hidden underneath her hood, but not so much that I couldn't see the way she was looking at me - how a hunter looks at their prey. Even if the final exam hadn't truly begun, it had. We were enemies, not classmates.

But I would not be prey.

I let her slowly approach, careful not to take my eyes off her even for a second. Looking into the eyes is the key to reading an opponent; the Academy had taught me.

"I shouldn't be surprised," she said, her voice silky smooth, almost amused. "Even if you're only rank seventeen, you still lived through two years of training."

It sounded like she was underestimating me, just as I wanted her to, but I wasn't stupid enough to fall for it just like that. There was every chance that she knew my ranking was inaccurate, given that we'd both found our way to the Overseer's office. Then again, that she wasn't leaving meant that she must have felt confident enough in her own skills that she could take care of me herself.

If she had any brains, she'd have been feeling _insecure_ about her abilities. If I were in her shoes, I'd be looking to make a tactical retreat until I could find out what my opponent were truly capable of. But still she approached, though cautiously, her eyes never looking away from my own. Her vibroknife was in her hand, long and curved and silver, about the same length as my forearm.

"That's a very interesting map though, isn't it?" she said, finally taking her eyes off me and looking at the map illuminating the room. She could still see me out her peripheral vision, I knew, and any attack from me would have been immediately spotted. "Very enlightening."

I didn't want to respond yet. We'd all been trained how to manipulate, and in how to read micro-expressions to look underneath what someone said. Trying to talk my way out of the situation would never work, not against someone with the same training that I had. She was probably thinking the same, but even if she were to try, I could never trust her, or any of my classmates.

"As the only two to see it… I think we should work together to take out the competition," Number Six said, turning to look back at me with analyzing eyes.

_Too heavy-handed._

She looked calm, but I wasn't so sure that she was. She hadn't expected to find anyone here at all, and that she found someone so far underneath her rank had her spooked, even if she wasn't showing it. Because of that, her offer of alliance might have been genuine, or she might have intended to slit my throat the second I turned my back. At most, a few of us might make it, and though I was expecting alliances so that people could survive until they only had to face their former friends, I would rely only on myself. Most classes only ended with a single survivor, and if I was to die, it would be because _I _failed, not because of the failure of someone I was counting on.

"An alliance?" I asked, careful to keep my voice steady and my face impassive. "You'd want to ally with someone ranked so far beneath you?"

I just needed to get a little closer without her feeling threatened. If I could just talk long enough…

"Why not?" She said. "The fact that you're here means that you've been severely underestimated. Nobody will expect you to put up a decent fight. That makes you dangerous. So dangerous that this might be one of those years where _two _people pass."

It also meant I was right, and she wouldn't be letting her guard down around me. Smart, but frustrating. I didn't want to get into a fight, any fight, where I wouldn't be at a distinct advantage. As wary as she was, it meant my edge was gone. She didn't have a good grasp on my skills, that was true, but a cautious opponent is harder to defeat than a confident or emotional one.

"You have a plan?" I asked.

She almost smiled, but in reality it looked more like her lips had pulled back from her teeth, giving her a cruel, dark sort of look. Hidden by the shadows in the room as she was, it made her all the more menacing. No doubt it was intentional, an attempt to make herself more terrifying, but I could see through the bluster. She was still nervous.

"A good one, actually. I'm in with the higher ranks, as you're probably aware. Before we fight each other, us top ranks want to root you all out. They think you're easy pickings… but you'renot, are you?"

I would not dignify that question with a response.

After a few moments of tense silence, she continued. "I'm proposing that when they come for _you_, we turn on them together."

I would have to kill her. She'd seen too much, and there was no way I was going to make an alliance with _anyone_.

"And how exactly would we do that?" I asked, biding time.

Number Six turned her gaze once more towards the map. "Because we have _this. _There must be a good spot to set up an ambush. Does the Overseer have more details about tomorrow in his system?"

I couldn't let her see the Overseer's additional notes. If I did not kill her here, then I had to make damn sure that she wouldn't have the same advantage that I did. There was no guarantee she would keep it to herself, and any plans that I might make using the map would be null and void.

"I haven't looked yet," I bluffed. "Let me check."

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't move from where she stood on the other side of the terminal, watching my fingers moved along the holographic display. I wanted her to come closer. Her vibroknife was clear to see, twirling in her fingers, but with mine tucked up behind my back, she couldn't have been sure that I was armed. If I was quick enough, I could cut her throat before she knew what was happening. I just had to get goad her into coming closer.

I had just the plan.

I did the same thing that I always did when in the Overseer's office. I sent all the data to my datapad back in my dorm and erased it from the system so nobody else could see it. In front of my eyes the map disappeared, and the room returned to dark shadows. For a long moment, the room went silent, and only the patter of rain across the offices' long window could be heard.

"Oh no," I said, probably a little smug. "My finger slipped."

Losing her advantage was enough to make her control slip, if only for a few seconds. She snarled, and brandished the vibroknife threateningly in front of her.

"What the hell have you done?" she hissed. "You've taken away my victory!" She closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye, her weapon arcing up towards my unprotected ribs.

But where she was angry and irrational, I was all too calm. I grabbed her wrist with an iron grip with left hand, stopping her attack before it could hit. With my right, I reached for my own vibroknife, and brought the point of it straight up to the soft area under her chin. The vibrating metal pierced her flesh with a sickly squelch, and I felt her warm, thick blood gush out over my hand and soak into the black fabric of my sleeve.

That was all it took to kill her. Alive one minute, gone the next.

I felt nothing. No pang of guilt, no disgust in my actions or in the way the light left her blue eyes. If I felt anything at all, it was a sense of accomplishment and purpose.

_One down. Eighteen to go._

* * *

"Has anyone seen Number Six?" I heard a voice ask nearby. I almost smirked, but kept my face emotionless. By now, her body had probably been discovered and fed to the beasts in the jungles of Dromund Kaas.

"She wasn't in her dorm this morning," another answered. "Probably too scared to go through with the final exam. Maybe she was caught trying to run away?"

"Probably. She always struck me as a coward," I heard the familiar, arrogant voice of Number Two say. "Maybe some of you lower ranks should have gone with her."

At that, I finally looked up, watching the girl gaze around at the other trainees. Number Two had always been outrageously conceited. She'd placed second in every exam, right behind Number One. But unlike him, she was pointlessly cruel, always trying to bully the lower ranks into submission to make herself seem more powerful. I couldn't prove it, but I was certain that she was behind the mysterious deaths of our classmates. Well, all except Number Six.

It never worked, at least not on me. Sure, I played the part and acted offended and afraid, but she was all bluster. Underneath she was just a frightened little girl, and today was her last day alive.

We'd all been sent to the same familiar clearing in the jungle outside our dorm building, the only nearby place that a transport big enough for all of us could land. The atmosphere was palpable, and conversation was minimal. We all knew what the day would bring. We were all alive now, but soon all but one of us would be dead.

I stood with the rest of the lower rankings when we were all grouped together. Not out of any sense of loyalty to them, but more just to fit in with the illusion that I was in the same boat they were. If it meant I would be the only survivor to become an Agent, then I was happy to take the disdain from the higher ranks, looking down their noses at us.

It would come back and bite them.

Before long, the transport was descending into the jungle opening, its back door coming down to the ground so we could climb on. Like the map suggested, the transport ship was only meant for short distances, which meant that it would stay on Dromund Kaas. It didn't surprise me, but I heard the other trainees murmur amongst themselves. Probably they thought the final exam would take place off-world.

I was among the last to enter the transport and ended up sitting in one of the seats towards the back as it lifted back off the ground. Only two instructors were on board, both of them combat instructors, but the Overseer was there too, casting his intense red gaze over us all. That was a shock in itself. We'd seen him from time to time, but never to be addressed by him directly.

He was picture perfect for an official from the Empire. Gray pressed uniform, with his rank insignia plaque plastered over his left breast. His hair was short and tidy, and he stood with a straight back with his hands rested together behind his buttocks. Even for a Chiss he stood out as an obvious officer of the Empire.

"You all know why you are here," he began in his commanding tones. "We have trained you to be the Secret Arm of the Empire, and anyone who has made it to this point in their training has proven they have the potential to be a successful Agent."

The Overseer stopped to pass his gaze meaningfully over us. "But we're not just looking for those who _might _make a good agent. The Empire will only accept the most elite, those who will undertake any mission and carry it out with success as the only possible result. This final exam is meant to test you. By the end of the day, only one of you will be left standing."

"Your instructors believe you all have the skills necessary to take a life… but can you do it without hesitation? Can you prove yourself the most elite amongst classmates with the same skill sets? Will you kill because your Empire demands it of you? Today, we shall find out what you all are made of."

* * *

**Notes**

I hope this chapter wasn't too jarring because of the time skip. I didn't want to have chapters on chapters of Harry learning to be an Agent. They wouldn't have progressed the plot any, I don't think, so I decided to just skip to the very end of his training.

I was torn over what to make the final exam. On the one hand, the Sith Empire doesn't like waste, so putting them in a Hunger Games scenario kind of feels like wasted lives. On the other hand, Sith Acolytes on Korriban only ever had one living Sith per class, so only the strongest survived. I figured that was the way to go, since Imperial Agents are the best the Empire has to offer outside of being an actual Sith, so they would only want the most skilled to actually work as an Agent for them.

Also, I'm considering adding a prologue explaining how Harry ended up on Nar Shaddaa from Dumbledore's perspective. People have been commenting that this fic doesn't really feel like a fanfiction in a lot of ways, so I think that would go a long way towards fixing that problem. Let me know what you guys think.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Next chapter is obviously Harry's graduation test from the Imperial Academy.

PS - I've been looking for a solid beta to act as a soundboard or to help with plot/character development for this fic. If anyone is interested, let me know.

**PPS - I've created a discord for anyone who might be reading my fics and has any questions. I might also rec some fics that I've been reading or you guys can rec some to me or each other or whatever. Just a good space to discuss different fics (not just of mine) or just life in general. If people join, I might end up asking for opinions on where my stories are headed and showing snippets before they get posted. Feel free to join! Just PM me or check my profile for the link (it's a ****show of a link) for an invite. FFN is just a tad frustrating when it comes to links.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Before the chapter, I want to take a sec to tell you guys about the discord I created a few weeks back. Its a good place for fanficcers, both writers and readers, to talk about fanfiction, rec fics either your own or other peoples, and to ask me about any of mine. I****'m also likely to give snippets of what I'm writing, and I also give daily updates about where I'm at with my fics. I've already got some people on there and its been fun, so **_**check my profile for the link!**_

**Thanks guys!**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

The transport dropped us one at a time over different areas of the valley. Like most of Dromund Kaas, it was all lush jungle, so thick that it was impossible to see through the trees from the ship hovering over the canopy. I had no way of knowing what lie beneath the twisting green thicket, but there I was ordered off the ship, and staying wasn't a choice.

I connected the winch to my standard-issue belt and and jumped out the door without hesitation, the metal wire keeping gravity from pulling me down at death-inducing speed. I fell through the massive, wet green leaves, scanning the ground below me for any sign of threat. I couldn't be too cautious, even at the beginning of the exam when it was unlikely anyone had made it too far from their starting position.

The make-shift jungle arena encompassed a huge area, probably ten square miles in total, and entirely surrounded by a tall electric fence with enough wattage to kill a Rancor. We were all trapped there together, and the only way out was victory.

I _would_ get out.

I hit the ground running, smoothly disconnecting myself from the winch and heading north, exactly as I had planned. My feet splashed through the mud, but I couldn't afford to let myself worry about the tracks I was leaving. It was raining heavy, so my tracks would theoretically disappear before long.

The best chance I had was to get my hands on a weapon. I knew from my studies of the Overseer's notes that ten of the twenty of us had blasters - some pistols, some rifles - and right now _they_ had the best chance of victory. I wouldn't say I was d_efenseless_ without one, but I would have to get close in order to fight on an even footing, while someone with a rifle could kill me from half a mile away. That was unacceptable. I had to get a weapon, and I knew the likeliest place to find one.

One of the ten weapons was a Sniper, and the best place to use that would be from high ground. From the map, I knew where the only feasible location was. The north side of the arena had the highest ridge in the area, likely looking over almost the entire arena. Since the rifle was equipped with a high-vision thermal scope, it was the best position to be, and whoever had the Sniper would come to the same conclusion.

It's exactly why I wouldn't stay there once I had what I wanted. Whoever had the Sniper would be a fool to not go to the highest point, where they could map the entire area and perhaps the general locations of the others. Since I'd already seen the map, all I wanted was the weapon, and more importantly, the scope.

Bounding through the jungle at breakneck speed was the part of my plan that could derail the easiest. Map of the arena or no, I couldn't control everything, and the beginning of the exam was always when I was going to be at my most vulnerable. All it would take is for someone with a blaster to spot me from a distance, and that would be the end. At least the storm overhead was giving me some cover. It would be harder to see me through the heavy rain, and the constant patter and thunder would help mask my sound.

It was only minutes before I reached the steep incline of the ridge. From there I would have to be more cautious though, which meant moving slower. I had no doubt that others, especially whoever had the Sniper, would be trying to reach the same position, and I couldn't afford for them to spot me. All I could count on was that my knowledge of the area would give me the advantage.

Another problem was the thermal scope. No potential agent who had reached this point in their education would be stupid enough to approach a location without checking for enemies first, and whoever had that sniper had the best method of actually doing that. I didn't have access to multispectral camouflage to mask my presence from it, which meant I would have to improvise.

On the way up towards the tip of the ridge, I jumped into the small flowing stream of water that I'd found on the map the night before. The water was damn near freezing, exactly as I hoped it would be. It was terribly uncomfortable of course, but compared to a definite death without it? It was an easy compromise to make.

The cold water itself wouldn't be enough to hide me though. The heat from my skin would still show through, and eventually it would also reheat my wet clothes to the temperature of my flesh. But I had a plan for that.

I slowly moved towards the top of the ridge, using the trees to cover my approach. The advantage of the map and my subsequent immediate movement meant that I was, thankfully, the first to reach it. Others would try and reach the same position, but for now I had the edge.

At least, I _would_ have the edge once I had proper protection from the thermal scope. Again, thanks to the weather, I had the means. It was a rare day on Dromund Kaas where it _wasn__'t _storming, so it wasn't like I had taken it on chance. Constant rain had made the jungle floor thick with mud and slush, and the ambient temperature meant that it was _cold. _

Cold was exactly what I needed. Since my wet clothes had already cooled me down, burying myself in the mud would bring my temperature down low enough that I shouldn't show on the thermals, though it wouldn't last forever. My natural body heat would begin to show through eventually, but between my wet clothes and the freezing cold mud, it should be long enough to keep me hidden.

The mud was cold enough that I could feel it even underneath my skin, as though it was piercing through it like a knife and grabbing at my bones with frosty fingers. But covering my body was the best way to stay alive, so there was no room for second guessing. Our training had included survival training in the harshest conditions, so it was nothing I hadn't dealt with before.

It turned out to be Number Seven who had the Sniper, curse my bad luck. It had held out so far, since I wasn't spotted on my way to the ridge, but apparently that was as far it would stretch. Of all those in the arena, Number Seven was probably the last I would want to face unarmed. True, Number One was the most dangerous among us, but that was a ranking made up of the results of _all _our exams. Even he had never managed to beat her in hand to hand combat.

It was all due to her upbringing. Number Seven was Dathomirian, and according to notes I'd stolen from the Overseer's office nearly a year earlier, she'd been raised to be one of their lethal nightsisters almost from birth. If she'd been force sensitive, her training on Dathomir would have continued. But she wasn't, and circumstances had somehow led her to Imperial Intelligence.

That upbringing meant she had far more combat experience than any of the rest of us, especially in hand-to-hand fighting. She moved like a ghost, always evading attacks and striking where her opponent least suspected it. At least she didn't have a sword or vibroknife as well as the rifle. If she did, I'd last only seconds. As it was, the only chance I had was the element of surprise, and it appeared that I _did _at least have that.

She reached the top of the rise slowly, looking through her scope the entire time. Her gaze passed straight over me, never hesitating for even a moment, and I was looking for it. Just the slightest hesitation would have meant the possibility that she'd seen me, even if she then was going to pretend that she hadn't. But no amount of training could result in that complete lack of reaction. The mud had done it's job.

Even so, that it was Seven was enough to give me pause. It wasn't that I was afraid of her - I wasn't _afraid_ of any of them - more that I logically knew that if I failed in a surprise attack, she'd kill me. I knew what I was capable of, and I couldn't beat her in this kind of fight. The piece of equipment I'd chosen wouldn't help me, either. It was only me, weaponless, against someone who was probably as lethal without a weapon as she was _with _one.

The risk was just too great. I'd have to resort to one of my contingencies.

Or I would have, if not for the very timely arrival of Number Twelve. The slender girl was the smallest and youngest among us, only a few months behind me in age. Her stature made it that much easier for her to remain silent, though her near-perfect movements certainly didn't hurt. Clearly she'd stalked Seven through the jungle, probably using her incredibly lithe frame to stay hidden behind cover.

By then, Number Seven was laid on the ground, the Sniper propped up in front of her while she looked through the scope for her enemies. Twelve approached slowly, reaching behind her back and revealing the equipment she'd chosen for the exam. A vibroknife - exactly the kind of weapon she'd need to take down Number Seven, at least with surprise on her side.

If she could manage to take down Number Seven, I'd be in a much better position. I could take Number Twelve in a fight, of that I was totally certain. She was smaller than me, and even with me faking my real abilities, I always felt like I was faster and stronger than her in training. Add that to the fact that she had no idea I was there, and I could get a vibroknife, and the thermal scoped sniper all at the same time.

But things are never that easy, and just as Twelve moved to bring the vibroknife down, Seven rolled to the side in time to mostly avoid it, the blade only managing a thick gash into her shoulder. She let out a grunt of pain, but in a flash she was on her feet and whirling around Twelve, wrapping her uninjured arm around her neck. The fight was over that quickly. Though blood was now streaming from her other shoulder and down into her hand, she snatched the vibroknife out of Twelve's grip and slid it smoothly into the gap between her shoulder-blades.

Twelve dropped to the ground in a lifeless heap.

_Damn it. _

Even with the advantage of the map and the Overseer's notes, my now former classmates were still unpredictables in my calculations. Fighting Seven would be a terrible plan without a weapon, but moving instead to one of my contingency plans this late into the exam wouldn't be much better, especially with Seven now watching the exits off the ridge with the thermal scope.

Then again, Twelve had managed to wound Seven in their brief fight, and I was still undetected. If I could just get the vibroknife from her waistband, I might still stand a chance.

Given the circumstances, it was the best plan I had. I couldn't move off the ridge without being spotted, and even if I could, entering the jungle below without a weapon of any sort while the others have had time to organize themselves was practically a suicide mission.

With gathered willpower I rolled slowly out of the mud, my eyes set firmly on Seven, who had lay back down on the edge of the ridge and was again looking carefully for her enemies below.

_Low center of gravity. Toes first. _I had to remember every lesson for quiet movement as I approached my mark from behind. Just a single sound would be all it would take for her to turn around and kill me, especially from this distance.

I closed the gap slowly, but surely, every small step bringing me closer to my goal. I crouched even lower when I was close enough to reach out and grab her, moving my arm ever closer towards the waistband of her mud and blood coated Imperial uniform.

Just grab the knife and kill her - simple.

But Seven was spectacularly fast, and her experience with unarmed fighting meant her instincts were well honed. The second my fingers closed around the hilt of the knife she was lashing out with her back foot, and low as I was crouched, her foot connected straight into my nose. I saw white light and my nose crunched under the pressure, but my training allowed me to keep a grip on the knife and roll out of the way of a second blow.

Seven pressed her advantage immediately, lashing out with a high kick that I managed to mostly avoid, her foot just grazing along my cold cheek. That didn't help either. My freezing body was slowing me, and against an opponent faster than I was at my best, that was a very bad thing.

"Fucker," Seven growled under breath, ducking under a clumsy forward slash I made with the knife. Just as in training, she whirled underneath the blow and got in close, striking my throat with a quick jab and causing me to cough before she got behind me with outrageous ease. The only solace was that I managed to keep the knife from her hands.

Still, under normal circumstances, that would be my end, but Twelve's attack had left Seven injured, and her grip on me with her injured shoulder was weaker than it should have been. I brute forced my arm free and grabbed blindly for her injured shoulder, clawing my hands into the wound with as much strength as I could muster.

Her scream echoed down the ridge, and the arm around my neck loosened.

Now with my knife-wielding hand free, I stabbed it behind me, feeling its sharp metal pierce through flesh and bone.

Another scream.

I stabbed blindly again, and again, until her screams were softer and more like gargles. When I turned, I had stabbed her in the stomach multiple times, and she was dropping to the ground, blood streaming into the mud.

Once, I would have found the image frightening, but now I simply plunged the knife into her heart, no hesitation.

My heart was racing, and I felt some weakness settle into my limbs as the world returned to silence other than the soft patter of rain. My nose was crooked and bleeding, and as the adrenaline faded the pain of my definitely broken nose could be felt more and more.

I couldn't let it slow me down. Seven's screams must have been heard, and I would have enemies closing in quickly. I grabbed the rifle and headed down the ridge, careful to check for enemies through the scope so I wasn't caught unawares.

* * *

Just as I thought, I watched through the scope as some of my enemies made their way towards the top of the ridge as I headed down its other side. By my count there was five of them, which meant they'd planned an alliance. With just their silhouettes showing through the scope it was impossible to tell who they were, but I had a feeling it was those of the higher ranks.

The top five had always stuck together throughout training, always looking down their noses at the rest of us while they tried to prove their superiority amongst their own elite group. There's no way that meant they trusted each other, but there was no _certainty _there had to be only one survivor, so why not the five best? I felt differently. At most there would only be three, and the examiners wouldn't look kindly on the trainees mowing through their opponents from the safety of a group. Success would be better guaranteed alone as far as I was concerned.

My way off the ridge was clear though, and I managed to get back down into the jungle brush with relative ease. The scope was just as useful as I planned. Being able to tell the distance between myself and my nearest opponent meant that I could tell if I had the time to cover my own tracks. In both attack and defense, it was probably the most invaluable tool in the entire exam, at least from my perspective.

True, some of the others were armed with powerful blasters and explosives, and others still with devices that would allow them to set traps and set up defensive positions, but I valued awareness above all of that. With my low ranking I wouldn't have had the choice of one of the better tools anyway, but that didn't mean that I couldn't still use the one that I _had _gotten, especially now.

The Synthecord I'd chosen would let me scale the trees of the jungle with absolute ease. It would've been useful simply to hide before I had the sniper and the vibroknife, but now I could use it in addition to them to set up ambushes against unsuspecting enemies. All I had to do was set up the device on the Sniper itself and I had an effective ascension gun.

Looking through the scope past my crooked, bleeding nose felt awkward, and I found it difficult to focus over the sensation of my freezing cold limbs. Still, I had to push through the discomfort, and try to find a target. It couldn't be any of the five up on the ridge. Even with the element of surprise on my side it would be too tough a fight, especially in comparison to those others who were alone.

Before long I was close to my next target, his thermals revealing him to me through the trees. Immediately I was using the Synthecord to rise high into a nearby tree, positioning myself onto a wide branch for stability. As big and burdensome as the sniper was, I'd need that stability if I was going to have any chance of taking down the opponent in one shot.

I still couldn't tell who it was, only being able to see their bright outline briefly through the trees, and it didn't help that they weren't taking any chances. They moved quick and agile from cover to cover, never stopping in one place for even a moment.

That was okay. I'd only need one shot, and with the scope, I could line them up without needing perfect vision. I took a deep breath and watched him through the scope, slowly moving the sniper along with my target's movement, aimed straight at their torso. The shot might not kill them outright, but it was more likely to hit than a head-shot, and at the very least it would likely incapacitate them.

_The moment between breaths. _The training had taught me accuracy, too, and I was sure I could make the shot.

The second the target moved out of cover, I fired, and a flash of red filled my vision. I watched through the scope as the target dropped, and I heard the faint grunt of pain as the bolt struck true. Lightning arced through the sky as I used the Synthecord to lower myself back out of the tree, never taking my aim off the target. I approached the same way, gun still held aloft in front of me, just in case it was a grazing shot and my enemy was goading me closer.

That wasn't the case though. It was Fifteen this time, a human male probably only a couple of years older than myself. His hands were balling at his chest, as though he could stem the damage from where the blaster bolt pierced him straight through. He was coughing and crying, and when I got to his side he looked up at me with wide and desperate eyes. I couldn't afford to feel guilt. Fifteen was probably the nicest and sweetest amongst our class, but in our situation that was a hindrance, rather than a strength. I fired once more, this time going for a kill-shot. In a flash of red light he was gone.

* * *

I hadn't been able to find a good target for nearly two hours after Fifteen's death. I could definitely see the others through my scope, but an attack on any one of them would have been more risky than I could afford to be. They were too often close to others, or in a couple of cases, allied with another.

That was fine though. With my Synthecord I could simply hide in the trees and watch from afar as my enemies killed each other off. The only downside was that I wouldn't get any more equipment to help me secure my victory. I still had plenty of ammunition for the Sniper, assuming I wasn't going to be missing shots, and the vibroknife as well, but neither would help me too much at mid-range. The Sniper was too big to aim quickly under pressure, especially compared to a pistol or repeating blaster, which my adversaries more than likely had access to.

This far into the test, most of us looked to already be dead. Through the scope now the only ones I could see were the alliance of high ranks, the group of still five who had roamed the area and killed every person they come across. By my count they'd killed seven, and that was just from what I'd witnessed from afar through the thermal scope.

There was always the chance that there were still a couple more, hiding well amongst the thick brush, but I'd seen no real action for about half an hour now, and it was also possible that I was the only one left besides them.

That was _not _good.

I knew that facing more than one was always probable, but the chances of at least _one _of the high ranks getting killed seemed inevitable, and would definitely have increased my chances. As things looked though, it would be me versus the five best in our class. Those were very bad odds indeed.

To think that I was worried about fighting One alone under _any_ circumstances, and now I might have to face him while he's backed by the strongest underneath him?

_Shit. _

Still, I waited. There was a chance, a small chance perhaps, that if they couldn't find me they might finally turn on each other. With the scope I could tell if they were getting close, and there was no real reason I shouldn't be able to elude them.

But that's obviously not how the examiners wanted things to play out. No doubt they were watching with their numerous surveillance drones, and they'd seen the predicament I'd found myself in. Using the drones as a mouthpiece, they announced that my fear was correct, there were only the six of us left.

Their intention was clear. They were testing me, even now. Unless the five higher ranks turned on each other, they wanted me to fully pit myself against all of them. I couldn't dwell on why the examiners might want that. It either meant they believed I could succeed, or they _didn__'t_ think so, and wanted me out of the way. Either way, I didn't really have much choice.

I'd been opposing it from the start, but now I would have to actually move _towards _the group of my enemies, rather than keeping them at a distance. I needed to get a better vantage, to come up with a plan, any plan, that might still secure me a victory.

A few deep breaths was enough to assuage my nerves, but I couldn't get rid of them completely. I hadn't _truly _felt them since the day I left Nar Shaddaa, but now, under these circumstances, I was genuinely afraid. I'd been so confident after finding the map in the Overseers office that victory felt like a foregone conclusion, even if I was logically telling myself different. That was stupid. Where people are involved, no outcome is certain.

I watched the group carefully through my scope as I approached, staying low on the ground and behind the thick brush so they wouldn't see me. Just as I thought, it was the top five ranks. Two Chiss, three Humans. That at least was good. Chiss and Humans have no species advantage, no increased sense of hearing or smell that they could discover me with. If I was careful, I would still have surprise on my side.

But even grouped together like they were, their guard was still very clearly up, though honestly I should have expected that. Alliance or no, each of them must have been acutely aware of how they might have to turn on each other at any given moment. No doubt they'd been just as on edge together as I was by myself.

_That__'s it. _

There was no way I could properly take on all five. They all had the same training I did, and even if I could take one or two, getting all five would be impossible. It was foolish to think otherwise.

But I still had a chance. If I could somehow make them turn on each other…

A smile made it's way onto my features as a makeshift plan jumped into my head. None of them _truly _trusted each other, and that was a weakness that I might be able to use against them.

I'd have to be silent, not even making enough sound for them to be suspicious. If I could just kill _one _of them without the others seeing I'd have a chance. As nervous as they are around each other, one of them dropping dead without knowing who did it might be enough to make them turn on each other. At the very least, it would mean I was against four rather than five.

It wouldn't be an easy shot, given how cautious they were. They moved in formation, all trying to cover for the other's blindspots. But with the Sniper I had more range than they did, and all it would take is one mistake for me to take advantage. I saw my opening before long, firing through the scrub the exact moment that the person on the right turned their head away. The silence that followed felt long and torturous. Through the scope I watched my target drop to the ground, and the other four figures turn sharply to watch him.

It was the moment it could all have gone wrong.

If they'd even seen the blaster bolt out of peripheral vision, they would know my location, and I'd be running for my life. Their hesitation told me otherwise. They might still not believe the attacker was amongst them, of course, but at least their hesitation meant they didn't know where I was. Worst case scenario, I had a chance to escape.

But through the scope I watched as One rolled away from the others with incredible speed, getting cover from behind a nearby tree. I was still at a distance, but I could hear yelling from their location, and weapons left their holsters. Only the storm could be heard as I watched weapons aimed at each other, just as I hoped. But then they did _exactly _what I didn't want them to, and moved to examine the body of their fallen comrade.

_Shit. _

The second they saw the entry wound, they'd know it was none of them who fired the bolt. It meant I had two choices. Run and try again later, which they would be expecting, or try to take them now. The only advantage I still had was that they didn't know my _exact _location, though that would soon change. Also, with the Sniper I had better range.

Run, or fight?

Or win?

My chances of _that _greatly increased when the person examining the body rose back to their feet. From the shape of him I could guess that it was Three, the Chiss explosives expert. At his waist hung a small ball, dangling as he got back to his feet.

A thermal detonator, and a chance for my victory.

A near impossible shot, but still my best bet.

Time felt like it was moving slower as I once again held the Sniper steady in my hands, shifting the gun ever so slightly so it was aimed at Three's waist, just a tiny bit off to the side. Now he was pointing my way, clearly able to see the direction the first bolt had come from.

It was now or never. A single moment and they'd all be moving, either for cover like One or directly towards me. Either way, movement meant the shot would more than likely miss.

I waited no longer than the cross-hairs to land on the explosives before I pulled the trigger. For a moment I thought I'd missed, but by some trick of light the bolt seemed to veer into my target.

_Boom._

It wasn't as big an explosion as I was expecting, but it was definitely big enough to do what I wanted it to. I was on my feet and running for their position just a heartbeat later, determined to finish off whoever was left. It was risky, running in once the explosion had rendered my thermal scope useless, but the chaos it caused would have to be advantage enough. More than likely it had killed them anyway, but I had to be certain.

I sprinted out of the thick brush and out into the open, Sniper held aloft. It was an awkward way to use it, but it was the best I had. At least, until I saw the dropped blaster from one of the now scorched bodies. Cautiously, but quick as I could afford to be, I reached down and grabbed it.

My legs were swept from under me at that exact moment, and my head cracked into the muddy ground, hard. The world seemed to spin, but I moved immediately, spinning off to the side as the butt of a repeating blaster came slamming down.

I lashed out with my leg, and connected with something, though through my dizziness it was hard to tell what. Then there was a low grunt of pain, but it didn't sound like One, the only person I expected to still be alive. Through blurry vision I could make out Two, her face burned and bleeding, and eyeing me with a look as vicious and angry as I'd ever seen.

She'd made me drop the pistol, but she still had her rifle. I moved immediately, trying to regain my advantage. I dived forwards, almost slipping in the mud as she groggily lifted her gun to shoot me down. Somehow I managed to get my knife in hand, and I thrust it upwards as I came out of a forward roll. With no resistance the knife went straight between her ribs, and she stagged backwards, me moving along with her.

I let the knife go and grabbed the repeating blaster out of her dying hands. My head was still spinning, but somewhere I registered noise from behind me, and I whirled around, the rifles sight in front of my eye.

One stood across from me, his own gun aimed right back at me.

He didn't have a mark on him. No ripped clothes, no burn marks from the explosion, not even a drop of his enemies blood marring his perfect uniform. Only the rain had influenced his appearance in any way, making his hair stick to his forehead and droplets of water run down his blue Chiss features.

I on the other hand probably looked like hell. I had a broken, bloody nose and my clothes were coated in red blood. Nonetheless, I'd made it to this point, my finger on the trigger just like his. I prepared myself to shoot, to finally end it one way or another.

"STOP!"

The voice that came was the same as the one that had announced only six trainees still left. The examiners.

"Trainee One, Trainee Seventeen. Congratulations. It is over."

* * *

**Notes**

I'm sorry I kind of disappeared on you guys there. I was doing really well in getting chapters out quickly when I had a bit of a family disaster. It took quite a while for things to return to normal, but I should be back to fairly decent update schedule.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I don't have too much practice with all action, so hopefully its okay.

Thanks again to all those people who have taken the time to follow/favourite and especially those who review :)

**PS - Make sure you join my discord!**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hey guys!**_

_**Before the chapter, I just want to let you guys know again about the discord I've created for fanfiction. If your interested, its just a fun space to talk about fanfic, get good fics recommended and theres even a place to talk about your own fics, if you've got them.**_

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_**Its been alot of fun so far, and people have been quite active, so make sure you join! I can't post the link in the story space, but view my profile here on fanfiction to get the link.**_

_**Hope to see you there!**_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

The same drop ship that had brought us to the arena came to pick up myself and Number One not five minutes after the end of the exam. I limped my way inside and dropped into one of the hard metal seats, barely taking my eye off Number One, who jumped inside with spades of grace, no sign at all of the ordeal we'd just been through.

Nobody who looked at the two of us would believe we'd just been put through the same exam. I was covered in quickly drying mud, making my previously unmarred uniform filthy brown and crunching with every movement. My nose was crooked and still bleeding, and aches had set into every limb. Without the adrenaline fueling my every movement, I felt like absolute _crap. _

But the only sign that Number One had been outside at all was his wet appearance. He sat across from me, face impassive as he watched out the doors of the ship. His fingers were tapping some tune on the metal seats, and before long he began to whistle, like he hadn't just witnessed or been the cause of the deaths of people he'd been in class with for two years. I'd always admired his skill, but I'd never actually liked him. His arrogance really wasn't helping.

"Is there something on my face?" Number One asked calmly, not even bothering to look my way. I hadn't even realized I'd been staring. But how could I not? There _wasn__'t_ something on his face, and that was the problem. I'd known he was good already, the best in the class by far. But to get through without a single sign he'd had to fight for his life at all? It had to have been some kind of record.

A flash of lightning was enough to break my fascination. The bolts were slowly becoming more frequent, a sure sign that we were nearing Kaas city, the planet and the Empire's capital. Urban legend said that the constant lightning storms over the city were a result of the amassed dark side energy from the Sith, but whether that was true or it was just the nature of Dromund Kaas I didn't know. All I knew is that it made the skyline of the city dark and foreboding.

But even the lightning was nothing compared to the Sith Sanctum that overlooked the city. The capital itself was teeming with skyscrapers, but the Sith Sanctum dwarfed them all, a tower that soared high above everything else, emblazoned with the red sigil of the Empire. It could be seen from every location in the city, a warning and a comfort both - or at least, it was meant that way. I'd met enough Sith acolytes around the city in my time on Dromund Kaas to know there was practically no such thing as a comforting Sith.

The headquarters for Imperial Intelligence on the other hand was much more practical. It too was a high tower, maybe half the height of the Sith Sanctum that it sat next to. But the genuine feel of the two couldn't have been more different, even if they were the same color and made of the same materials. There was nothing grandiose about the headquarters for Imperial Intelligence. It wasn't a symbol at all, just a building intended for the utmost professionalism.

In the two years I'd been on Dromund Kaas, I'd only ever been inside once, on my first day on the planet. Actually, it was the first place I was brought after arriving, straight to Keeper's office. It felt fitting that the drop ship was taking me back where I'd started. When I arrived, Keeper gave me a chance to become an Agent. Now I was returning to tell him his hopes in me had been well placed.

It might've felt more triumphant if I didn't feel like I'd been stampeded over by a herd of Bantha. I had to swallow jealous fascination as I watched Number One hop gracefully off the transport in front of me, not a single strain in his movements. I may not have been able to hide my injuries, but I was still determined to enter Imperial Intelligence with my head held high. Number One might have gotten through without any sign of injury, but I'd still gotten through, and I wouldn't be overshadowed.

We were bid to follow the pilot of the ship, entering the twisting corridors of high roofs and metallic gray walls. It was all incredibly familiar to me, but now it was like I was seeing them through someone else's eyes - and in a way, I was. When I'd been there before, I was still Harry, the boy who'd lost everything. Now I was Trainee Seventeen, or _Agent _Seventeen. Where Harry was weak, Agent Seventeen was strong, trained and ruthless.

We emerged into what was probably the most cavernous room in the entire building, which I recognized as mission operations. All around the room were Watchers in front of computer terminals, all of them likely guiding their assigned Agents as they worked out in the field for the good of the Empire.

Keeper's office was located just beyond, just close enough in case he needed to become directly involved. The balding man himself was directly behind his desk, back turned to us as he watched his many monitors on the wall behind him.

I was surprised to find that it was footage of our exam that he was reviewing. One screen showed my fight with Number Seven, another the way I'd rolled myself into the cold mud to hide from thermals. Somehow, despite that I'd scrubbed the surveillance, there was even footage of my stabbing of Number Six the night before.

But the footage of my exploits in the exam looked downright amateur when compared to Number One's. I'd had to put up a fight against every single one of my opponents, but One had dropped all of his without any of it seeming like a challenge at all. He was in a group the entire time, but according to the footage playing on the wall, he was the only one amongst them who had actually killed. Every shot, perfect. Every movement, flawless.

After two years of watching him in training, I was still underestimating just how good he was. It was just too much to fathom. All nineteen of us in the exam were well trained, and even the least skilled among us had still achieved levels far above the norm. One hadn't broken a sweat putting down a single one of them.

"Keeper, I've brought-" the pilot started, but was cut off by Keeper lifting a hand.

"Leave us," he said firmly, not even bothering to turn around. He was still gazing over the screens, one hand lifted to his chin as he analyzed our every action taken.

Keeper didn't turn around until we were the only three left in the office. I hadn't seen him since arriving on the planet, so it was easy to forget just how stern his eye was. It wasn't that he made me feel small or diminished, more just that it was obvious how much experience he had reading people. It was like he could see right through me - all my goals and intentions and secrets.

"Trainee Seventeen," Keeper said. "On Level Four you'll find the medbay. They've been instructed to treat you as best they can while I meet with Agent Fourteen here."

_Trainee Seventeen. __**Agent**__ Fourteen. _That was telling enough to make me hesitate, and Keeper had no doubt done it on purpose. For some reason, I was still Trainee, but One - or Agent Fourteen now - was an Agent in truth. I wanted nothing more than to rant and rave and yell about the injustice of it, but I didn't have the luxury of questioning my superiors.

"Is there a problem, Trainee Seventeen?"

"No sir," I was forced to say.

"Good. When you're done in the medbay, come back here."

* * *

I have to admit, going to the medbay was the right call. Between cracking my nose back into place and a cocktail of medications and stimpaks, I felt good as new. Keeper had ordered a new uniform pressed and sent up to me as well, so it wasn't long before I was properly presented and ready for an actual meeting.

I would have to be careful not to let my anger get the best of me. Agent's needed to be in control of their emotions at all times, and from the sound of what Keeper said, my future as an Agent might be precarious under the circumstances anyway. Losing my temper would only be the nail in the coffin.

It just didn't make sense. Why allow One to be an Agent, but not me? If only One was going to be an Agent, then why stop us from fighting in the exam? Unless they didn't want to risk _him_ in the exam, and possibly end up with no Agents out of our class whatsoever? It still didn't feel like the right answer. I was missing something - I just had to keep my cool long enough to find out what it was.

_Maybe because they have footage of me breaking into the Overseer__'s office?_

Keeper was still facing the monitors on his back wall when I returned to the office. I'd been in the medbay for well over an hour, so I was more than surprised to find that he was still looking over footage from the exam. Every screen was focused on myself or Agent Fourteen, so Keeper could re-examine every decision we'd made.

Before I could even greet or ask him why he wanted to go over the exam so thoroughly, Keeper was already talking.

"My job is to ensure mission success," he said. "I have to know every strength and every weakness my Agents have to make that a reality. Some Agents are good at espionage and assassination, others at interrogation and head on combat. Some, like our new Agent Fourteen, are skilled in every area."

I hesitated. Life at the Imperial Agent Academy taught me that it wasn't my place to be asking questions, but it almost felt like Keeper was _inviting_ me to ask. In the end, my curiosity was too strong.

"If you don't mind me asking… what can you see from _my _performance?" I asked. If Agent Fourteen was so perfect, then surely I must have had strengths that Keeper could see. After all, I'd passed the test where so many others had fallen.

Keeper finally turned away from the monitors and set his keen eyes on me. "_Your _performance?" he hesitated for a moment, clearly considering his words. "Well, Agent Fourteen has you beat in marksmanship and combat in general… he's exceptional at anticipating what others are going to do, and generally outperformed you in every area."

I didn't say anything, but I couldn't help the way my brows had drawn together in frustration. What did I have to do to prove myself? I might not have been as good as the now Agent Fourteen, but I'd had to overcome just as many obstacles. More, really, since I had to get myself a weapon and use all my wits to succeed. Fourteen had that advantage from the beginning.

"And yet, I'd say your performance was the more exemplary," Keeper finished.

_What?_

I was dumbfounded. How could that possibly be true? I'd just come from an hours worth of treatments to get me fixed up, and all _he _needed was a dry uniform. I mean, I appreciated the compliment, but he'd also just said that I was outperformed in every regard, so how could my performance have been more exemplary?

"You seem surprised," Keeper said. "Speak freely."

"Well, yes," I admitted. "Agent Fourteen has been the top of our class from the first day of training. I can see from the footage myself how well he performed."

Keeper nodded sagely. "Like I said, he outperformed you in terms of skill, just as I expected. But also as I expected, your showing was stronger."

Keeper turned back around to the screens then, and beckoned me to his side. "What do you see, here?" He pointed to one of the screens on his left. It showed Fourteen, surrounded by the rest of his allies in the exam. While the others were slowly moving forward, Fourteen had stopped, and after a few moments stood apart from the others.

In a blur of movement he was twisting, his blaster appearing in his hands as he fired into the trees. Nine dropped from the branches, dead.

It was an amazingly display of skill. He'd known exactly where Nine was, right down to the precise moment he needed to shoot to get a kill-shot. More than that, he hadn't missed, despite having no time to actually line it up. But now that Keeper was asking me to analyze, I could see what he did wrong.

"Risky," I said. "Nine had ample opportunity to take a shot. Fourteen could've moved for cover or perhaps acted like he didn't know she was there and feigned ignorance…"

"But he didn't. He left himself open and risked getting himself killed. True, he knew that he would kill her, but only because he'd spent two years watching her in training. The same guarantee could not be said in a real mission scenario," Keeper said. "His pride and arrogance are failings that cannot be easily rectified."

Keeper moved to the other side and pointed at another monitor. "And what about here. You see the difference?"

I did. The new screen was currently playing how I'd jumped into the stream at the start of the exam, and then how I'd rolled myself deep into the mud to prevent detection. There was a big difference in the approach I'd taken compared to Fourteen's. He'd relied on his excessively honed skill, at the expense of risk and detection. I on the other hand…

"No risk is the only acceptable risk," Keeper said, repeating a lesson repeated so often in training. "You planned every action, and from the confidence of your movements I would garner that you had backup plans in case the situation changed." He turned back to his computer terminal for a moment to change the footage on the monitors.

Now, they were showing my repeated break-ins to the Overseer's office, going back to the first month of my training.

"After you scrubbed the surveillance footage the first time nearly two years ago, I had a watcher create a backup code that would send it here, instead of erasing into the void. I've been watching your progress with keen interest, Seventeen. From the moment I saw your actions on Nar Shaddaa, I knew you had the makings of a great Agent."

Keeper didn't give me a chance to thank him for the praise.

"The best quality you have is that you leave _nothing _to chance. If you carry that into missions for the Empire, you have a successful career ahead of you as an Agent."

I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding. If he was saying that, then Fourteen hadn't been made an Agent ahead of me. The last two years hadn't been for nothing. Or it seemed that way, until Keeper continued.

"Which brings me to the problem we now face." The relief left me as soon as it had come.

"Problem, sir?"

Again Keeper moved back to his terminal and changed the footage. Now, it showed some of my time on Nar Shaddaa, but it was the image in the middle that drew my attention.

_Bril__…_

It showed him dying on the floor, with me knelt over his bruised and battered body and Lady Kallis standing over us with sick glee written on her face. Bril's mother was crying in the background, and Kallis' bouncers were standing off to the side, ready to kill me on their boss' word.

I had to take great effort to keep my face impassive. This was Harry's life, and I was Trainee Seventeen now, hopefully not far off becoming an Agent. Despite that the image of it made me want to throw up and scream simultaneously, I couldn't let it affect me. I _wouldn__'t. _Out of my peripheral vision, Keeper was watching me intently, his examining eyes looking for any sign of fault. Somehow, I managed to show none.

"Fourteen has the advantage of being from the Empire. His family are loyal citizens of the Empire. _Your _background is quite different. It may seem unlikely given the time that has passed and that you are now bathed and well-presented, but the chance still exists that you could be recognized from your time on Nar Shaddaa."

_**Very **__unlikely. _Even without time passing, there were less than a handful of people on Nar Shaddaa who would recognize me on sight, and one of those has been dead for two years. It was near impossible that I would see any of the others ever again. But, like Keeper had reiterated, _'No risk is the only acceptable risk.'_

"You're sending me back to Nar Shaddaa," I said. It wasn't phrased as a question. There was only one way to eliminate the risk that I would be recognized on a mission. Anybody I'd known would have to be silenced.

In the past that would've made me happy. I'd left Nar Shaddaa promising vengeance, but now things were different. Harry had wanted vengeance, but I wasn't Harry anymore, not really. I'd buried those feelings a long time ago.

"It's rare that a prospective Agent would come to Imperial Intelligence from outside the Empire. Under normal circumstances I would take measures to ensure anonymity, but I cannot verify who might recognize you and who would not. You must go to Nar Shaddaa to bury your past."

It wasn't something I was interested in doing - not anymore. By going back to Nar Shaddaa, and more specifically, the exact place I'd spent most of my life, it felt more like digging up by past rather than burying it. Would I have to become Harry again, to do what needed to be done? If I did, would I be able to go back to being Seventeen?

"However, your past is not the only reason to send you to Nar Shaddaa," Keeper continued, drawing me right back out of my anxiety. "Your primary objective would be in direct service to the Empire."

"A mission? As a trainee, still?"

"You could consider it a mission, yes. A difficult mission, even. One that once completed, would make you an Agent in truth."

_One mission. _It wasn't as easy as it had been for Fourteen, but a lesson that I'd learned as Harry also applied to my life as Seventeen. _Life was rarely fair._

"What would I have to do?"

* * *

"Trainee Seventeen, this is Watcher Four," Keeper introduced.

I shouldn't have been surprised that Keeper didn't want to walk me through the mission himself. It was quite a ways below his job description. Frankly, the only reason he wanted to talk to me at all was because as he said, he needed to know all of his Agents inside and out. But now, who better to talk me through mission parameters than one who has to organize all the details like a Watcher?

She, and it _was_ a she, was not at all what I was expecting. In my time on Dromund Kaas I'd seen a few of the Sith species, red skinned and dark haired, but all of them had either been Sith Lord or Acolytes. A non force sensitive Sith was a rare thing indeed, but thats exactly what Watcher Four was.

She had pitch black shoulder length hair, and her golden eyes seemed to glow out of her pale red face. Unlike many others of her species her face was smooth and free of cheek tendrils and eyebrow stalks. Just like other Sith though, her features were sharp and almost predatory, making her look cold and fierce.

And yet, I got the distinct impression that she wasn't cold at all. In fact, she seemed nervous, rolling on the balls of her heels and never meeting me in the eye. She looked to only be about my age, but where my training had given me confidence, sitting behind a monitor all day looked to have done the opposite for her.

"Shall I leave you to go over the mission parameters, Watcher?" Keeper asked.

"Y-yes, Keeper. Thankyou," the girl stuttered, still refusing to meet my eye.

Keeper whirled around and made off in the direction of his office. "Keep me apprised," he said with his back turned to us. What followed was a long silence, with Watcher Four fidgeting uneasily from side to side.

"So," I eventually had to prompt. "Mission parameters?"

Watcher Four jumped slightly at the sound of my voice. "Ah, yes Agent, of course. I mean Trainee - I mean… sorry!"

She wasn't just the jumpiest Sith that I ever met, but perhaps the jumpiest _person. _It was hard to believe that she was a member of a species who had produced perhaps the most powerful and ruthless force users the galaxy had ever known. Before, I'd wondered how someone of her species had managed to find her way to Imperial Intelligence. Now? It made perfect sense. Even without force sensitivity, there was no way she'd fit in amongst her people.

Watcher Four led me to her terminal in mission control, just one of the many small spaces set aside to help Agents out in the field. Soon, I would be on Nar Shaddaa and Watcher Four would be here, ready to help with anything I might need, be it directions, information on a target or whatever I might need in the moment. Research and organization was the job of watcher, and it was the Agent's job to put that to good use.

"Well, umm," Watcher said, tapping the terminal screen in front of her. "Keeper told me that you grew up on Nar Shaddaa?"

She asked the question as though I was going to be offended that she know anything about me. With a raised eyebrow, I nodded.

"Then you know about the Hutt cartel, and how they run most of the galaxy's arms and narcotics deals?"

Again I nodded. I definitely knew that. Nobody on Nar Shaddaa, especially those in Zorbo's district, didn't know where the money on that moon came from. I may never have seen a drop of it, but I could never deny the extreme wealth that flows through those streets, and every ounce of it from drugs and weapons.

"The Empire has been in negotiations with the Cartels to stop double dealing with the Republic and arm only Empire soldiers. We could use their narcotics as well, to develop new medications and stimpaks."

"I see. So the mission I've been assigned would be to ensure that our deal with the Cartels go through? How?" I asked. I didn't like that the Empire would be relying on the good word of the Cartels to get weapons and medication. In my experience, they could never be trusted. But I was just an asset of the Empire, and my opinion didn't matter in the slightest.

Apparently the Watcher wasn't done explaining the situation. "Negotiations with the Cartels were apparently going smoothly, except for one holdout amongst the Hutts. Normally just one Hutt disagreeing with the rest of the Cartel wouldn't matter, but this Hutt in particular is influential amongst his colleagues."

I didn't need her to tell me which Hutt that was. Keeper had selected me in particular for this mission, along with the secondary objective of silencing anybody who might recognize my face. There was only one Hutt it could be.

"Zorbo," I said. "My first mission is Zorbo."

She looked surprised to hear me guess his name, and if she weren't such a nervous person, probably would've asked. Instead, she chose to simply explain the task. "It's an assassination mission. Empire diplomats have tried everything to get him on side, but we've discovered that he has financial ties to the Republic. He needs to be removed."

_Kill a Hutt__…_

That would be no mean feat for an _experienced _Agent, and I was definitely not that. Even small time Hutt's were well protected, and they always stayed inside their palaces. I couldn't plan to make the kill when he's on the move. I would have no choice but to kill him at the height of his security. Not exactly the mission I thought I'd be taking on straight out of training.

Still, Keeper was right in giving the mission to me. I had an advantage that another Agent wouldn't. I knew the area better than any of them possibly could, no matter how long they scoped it out. More than that, unless things on Nar Shaddaa had drastically changed, I knew the basics of Zorbo's operation.

I could do it.

I would kill Kallis, and anybody else I could think of that might remember my face.

Then, I would kill Zorbo the Hutt.

* * *

**Notes**

I know this chapter's a little boring and dialogue heavy. Hopefully its not too bad though, and it at least sets the scene for the next chapter.  
I consider the next chapter the end of the first act of the story, as there's another small time jump after that.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed, and feel free to ask if you have any questions or anything. Better yet, **join my discord!**


	8. Chapter 8

_Hey again guys! Just letting you know once more about the discord for fanfiction I've got going. It's taken off pretty well now, over 30 people. Theres a plothelp channel for writing your own fics, heaps of really good fics that have been recommended and compiled in another channel, and a place to get people to read their own stuff, whether original or otherwise._

_As for my own fics, I like for people to be involved in what I'm writing, and I ask for advice and general thoughts pretty frequently (all with spoiler tags for those who don't want) and I post full scenes sometimes days before posting._

_Hope you guys join! Link is in my profile!_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

Returning to Nar Shaddaa brought back more memories than I thought it would. I was barely out of toddler years when I first arrived on the smuggler's moon, but even those memories came bubbling to the surface as I stepped out of the hangar elevator and into the port. I'd been terrified then, clinging to the one who'd taken me from earth like a mynock to a power generator. Now though, I was returning confident, determined to complete my task. Now, Nar Shaddaa should be the one afraid of _me_.

Not that I expected it to, but the planet really hadn't changed at all in the two years I'd been gone. The air outside was still smoggy and borderline toxic, filling the outside with a greenish hue that was all pervasive. But now that I'd spent time on another planet, especially one as ordered as Dromund Kaas, it was the people that were the more surprising.

I'd always known that Nar Shaddaa was one of greatest hives of scum and villainy in the known galaxy, but seeing it once I'd experienced the opposite made it all the more obvious. People eyed each other like they were either a meal to be devoured, or with a sickening level of unabashed lust. Even in the port of Zorbo's district there was the distinct acrid smell of vomit and alcohol that told me things on Nar Shaddaa hadn't changed one bit.

It was almost as though I'd never left, and my disguise wasn't helping. I'd spent two years in training in the Empire, which meant I always had to be perfectly presented - no matter how difficult my hair made that task. Here though I was wearing casual clothes rather than a uniform, picked out for me by assistants working for Imperial Intelligence. Still, I had to look like I had some money, which meant that this time I wouldn't be a street kid. Money talked on Nar Shaddaa, and as a street kid I wouldn't have the access I'd need to get the job done.

I had to use every ounce of my self-control to get through the streets without stopping to reminisce about some memory or other. I'd spent so many years learning the layout - where to hide and where to run, and Bril was in every one of them. I couldn't stop to think about it. Emotions would compromise mission success, and I was determined to complete my mission. They were a weakness I could not afford.

Returning to the House of Plom Bloom made that task all the more difficult. It was the place I remembered most about my time on Nar Shaddaa, but not because I lived there. It had been the fuel to my nightmares for longer than I care to admit - the image of Bril dying on the floor night after night.

The brothel was probably the riskiest part of my plan. Of all the people likely to remember me from my time on Nar Shaddaa, every one of them had been from the House of Plom Bloom. There was even the possibility that the bouncers at the door could recognize me, cutting off any hope for a successful mission.

Yet it was still the best plan I had. True, 'no risk is the only acceptable risk,' but reality is still a factor, and sometimes taking no risk is simply not an option. I'd have a better chance taking the road with the least amount of risk, and with my disguise thats exactly what it was. Between my clothes and my hair and the fact that I was actually clean, I was certain I wouldn't be caught. Not to mention the blue lenses I'd elected to wear, and the makeup covering my scar.

Sure enough, the bouncer let me head inside after handing him the cover charge without so much as a flash of recognition passing through his eyes. I had to hold off a grimace as his sticky hands made contact with mine, wrenching the credits from my grip as though he was going to be able to pocket them himself.

The inside of the brothel was as lecherous and chaotic as I remembered, one patron smashing a bar stool over the head of another as I slipped inside. I stepped over his unconscious body, eyes scanning the room for any kind of threat to myself, or more importantly, my identity.

Fortunately, I might as well have been invisible. None of the patrons were interested in some random teen, too busy ogling the working girls and boys. The workers themselves were either 'busy,' or looking to find a patron with enough wealth to buy time. Add that the brothel's main area was awash with garish red light, and I could easily remain inconspicuous.

The bigger issue would be in getting where I needed to go. In the past I'd have been allowed straight past the second set of bouncers to the back rooms, but those days were long gone. Getting to Lady Kallis' office was the very crux of my plan though, and it was vital I find my way through. I just had to find an opportunity.

The most obvious solution would be to have a one on one meeting with Kallis herself, but that was a problem in itself. At a distance it was highly unlikely that she would recognize me, but there's no way my disguise would hold up under close scrutiny, especially if she was the one doing the scrutinizing.

I'd need someone else to get me back there, no question. The House of Plom Bloom was always open, and always busy. There was no way I could just stealth my way past without being spotted. Best option was to find a working girl and convince her I have 'special needs' that need accommodating. I would secure a meeting with Kallis, and then I'd finally have the opportunity to silence her. It would give me all the access I'd need for mission success.

"Hey there sweetie," one of the working girls swaggered over, her tone sultry and seductive. "You wanna go find a room?"

I had to put actual effort in to keep my face impassive, every muscle wanting to frown in judgement and disgust. She was barely older than I was, certainly too young to be working in the House of Plom Bloom in any fashion, let alone as a working girl. Then again, that was the nature of Nar Shaddaa. Disordered, disgusting. If it were up to me I'd have burned the whole moon until nothing was left.

"No," I grunted in my own approximation of the general guttural tone of near every patron to visit the brothel, "I want-"

It was right there, on the very edge of my peripheral vision. The exact same shade of blue that was so easily recognizable to me. Bril's mother had her back turned to me, perched on a patron's lap as she whispered into his ear. She was as slender as ever, and I didn't need to be looking at her face to tell she was still beautiful.

She was exactly who I needed. As Kallis' top worker she was well able to organize a meeting between myself and her, and there was no question that she'd recognize me if I got close enough.

But I would have to kill her. My mission was to silence anybody who would recognize me, and Bril's mother was definitely a name on that short list. Personally, I didn't have a big problem with it. I'd never really liked the woman, mostly because she never valued Bril in the way that he did her - the way that a mother should value her children. On the other, did I really have it in me to kill her? The mother of the only person in my life I'd ever been able to call a friend? The only person who I'd ever considered family?

"Oh, I see," the girl said, following my gaze. "Everybody wants the Twi'lek. You got the money to pay?"

In the end it didn't matter if she was Bril's mother or not. I wasn't really Harry anymore, and Bril was two years dead. For my life as an Agent to live, she had to die.

I nodded.

"Go into the room over there. I'll set it up," the girl huffed, clearly annoyed but motioning to one of the bedrooms off to the side of the main area.

For a brief second I considered refusing simply out of suspicion. I didn't want to go anywhere that I couldn't keep an eye on the situation, and especially anywhere I couldn't see potential danger coming. For all I knew she was trying to trap me in a room while she went to the bouncers or Lady Kallis.

I took a deep breath, silently willing myself not to be overcautious. I hadn't recognized her, so it was more than likely that she wouldn't know me, either. More than that, I hadn't detected any sign, no eye movement or micro-expression that would suggest her words were farcical. I just had to be calm and trust in my logic.

The bedroom wasn't much, but then, the patrons at the House of Plom Bloom weren't there to admire the scenery. They just needed four walls for privacy and a bed for comfort, in addition to the 'services' that they'd paid for. That worked out fine for me. All I needed was the privacy to set my plan in motion.

I faced the wall opposite the door inside the room as a precaution. The fact is, I had no idea how Bril's mother would react upon seeing me. If she was going to panic and reveal my identity, I wanted her to be inside the room with the door closed so I could stop her. At least then it would give me a chance to convince her to do what I needed.

I wasn't waiting long. Just a few minutes after entering the metallic door hissed open, allowing the loud music and boisterous shouting beyond to filter in. I turned my head to the side just enough to see the same familiar hue of blue skin enter, the door sliding shut behind her. Once again I faced the wall to allow her further inside before revealing myself.

"Aw, shy are we?"

The voice chilled me to the bone, raising the hairs on my arms and making me feel like I'd been lying in an ice bath for an hour. It wasn't Bril's mother.

_It was Bril. _

His voice had broken and was deeper than I remembered, but I'd have recognized it anywhere. It sent my mind reeling into an abyss of questions that I simply didn't have the answers to. He was supposed to be _dead. _His death was the entire reason I'd ended up on Dromund Kaas training to be an agent. It was the entire reason I'd left Nar Shaddaa under such a shadow. I'd left, he'd survived, and Lady Kallis had put him to work, just as I'd always known she would.

A part of me wanted to be ecstatic that he was alive, but the emotion struggled to surface. The more logical, trained Agent side of me recognized it as a major problem. I was there to silence anybody who knew me as Harry, and there was nobody who knew Harry better than Bril. I might have questioned my ability to kill his mother, but I could have done it. But not Bril. I couldn't even entertain the idea of killing _him. _

"There's no need to hide," Bril said softly, "I don't bite - not unless you want me to."

My face morphed into a grimace. The more words left his mouth, the more certain I became that it was Bril, despite the fact that the Bril I knew would _never _say such things. Two years was a long time, and just as I'd done what I had to do to survive, he must have done the same. His tone was convincing, but he'd always been a good talker. I could hear through it. To me his words sounded glib; I was certain he was only saying them because he felt he had to.

I turned very slowly to face him. My heart was beating frantically in my chest, even more than it had during the graduation test for the Imperial Academy. Some strange part of me was almost hoping that I was wrong, that it wouldn't be him after all.

Bril was still taller than me than me by about half a head, and his shoulders were more broad now than they were two years ago. He was still slim as ever, made more apparent by the way Kallis had him skimpily dressed. His face was still exactly the same, royal blue skin with darker blue freckles sprinkled across his nose. There was nary any sign at all of the beating he'd received at the hands of Kallis' bouncers.

"There-" he started to speak, stopping when my face came fully into his view. His eyes narrowed as he scanned my face. A brief look of sadness passed over his features, but he forced it away with a quick shake of his head.

_He doesn__'t know who I am. _

I reminded him of me, but my disguise was clearly good enough to make him believe it was just an uncanny resemblance. With different eyes and a lack of scar, plus two years aging, it was hard to blame him.

Bril kept approaching after his momentary pause, his smooth, graceful movements attempting seduction. "A quiet one, eh? Well that's okay, I can do the talking. I can tell you about all the things I'm going to do-"

I crossed the distance between us near instantly, slapping one hand over his mouth and the other behind his neck to hold him in place.

"Do _not_ finish that thought," I pleaded. "Bril, _look at me._"

Just like his voice was jarring to me, mine made him stop in his tracks. I was close enough to him now that I could see the reflection of myself in his eyes, which meant I could also see the exact moment he _really_ saw me. His eyes opened wide, but other than that, he seemed too stunned to move or react in any way.

"I thought you were _dead_," I said softly, barely more than a whisper. "I didn't know-"

Bril was pushing himself out of my firm grip and crashing into me, wrapping his arms tight around my back. Now it was my turn not to know how to react. I could easily have returned the gesture, and perhaps a small part of me wanted to, but I was too lost in confusion to even move. Under other circumstances it could be a miracle, but these were not usual circumstances. I _was not Harry anymore. _Even if I could never deny how much I cared about Bril, I couldn't just pretend the last two years hadn't happened.

Bril let go after a long and awkward moment, apparently not even realizing that I hadn't even returned his affection. He pulled back and grabbed me by both shoulders, his eyes now wide and full of alarm.

"Harry, what the hell are young doing here?" he hissed, voice dripping with urgency. "If Lady Kallis sees you…"

I flinched at his use of the name. _Harry. _"She wont see me_.__"_

_Not until I want her to. Then she__'ll never see anything else ever again. _

"You can't _be _here," Bril said, still as anxious as ever. "You can't threaten someone like Lady Kallis and expect to just come back here without it being a problem! _She will kill you. _That you managed to get off Nar Shaddaa at all is a _miracle.__" _

I shook my head in complete disregard of his concerns. If he hadn't recognized me immediately on sight, then theres no way in hell she was going to. More than that, Bril was here, and alive. I didn't have to rely on his mother, who was more or less a stranger to me. With him, my plan had a significantly higher chance of success.

"I was sure you were going to die," I spoke softly, the words leaving my mouth without me even meaning to talk. I should have been more concerned with the mission - killing Zorbo, and anyone in the Brothel who knew me. It was like my mind was set on one course of action while the rest of me was more concerned with Bril. I'd spent two years in training learning to keep my mind focused, but his survival had my thoughts rolling together like an avalanche. Focus was impossible.

Bril sat down on the end of the bed with a heavy sigh and looked pointedly away. "I probably should've. Lady Kallis had me taken to a doctor - I can only guess why, but probably because—" Bril bit his lip and cut himself off.

_Because she wanted you to work here. _The answer was obvious, and I felt like an idiot for not considering it to be a possibility beforehand. Kallis had never been subtle about her desire for Bril to work in the Brothel. She'd had him beaten nearly to death as a lesson and to ensure he was too afraid to refuse her ever again, but he was too valuable an asset for her to let him to die.

I couldn't wait to watch the light leave her eyes. Let her feel fear for once in her wretched life.

"I hate that you're seeing me like this," Bril said in a hushed tone, almost as though it was an inner thought rather than something he wanted me to hear. He was still looking away from me, a sure sign that he was ashamed, or at least that he thought that _I _would be ashamed.

I couldn't help but agree with him though. It was his greatest nightmare become reality. Scantily dressed and having to not only pleasure such disgusting creatures, but to have to act like he enjoyed it? I had to wonder how many times he wished he'd died when I'd left. How many days had he wished he'd just stayed in the hotel room that day? Or come with me on the mission for the Empire?

In the end I didn't have any words to offer him, not even of comfort. Harry was comforting, but I wasn't, even if I felt like I _should _be. I had the urge to sit down next to him and tell him everything was going to be okay. Instead I stood nearby, watching and listening but barely interacting. Such urges were an emotional response and a weakness that I couldn't afford. The mission depended on it.

Then again, that implied that my mission was going to be perfectly successful, but with Bril alive it was doomed to failure. I could still kill Zorbo and Kallis and anybody else that I had to, but never Bril, which meant that my first mission for the Empire would inevitably end in failure. It could end my career as an Agent before it ever truly began. The second Keeper saw Bril in the footage and my reluctance to silence him, it'd be over. Best case scenario was that they move me to background intelligence, worst case, execution for failure to follow orders.

_But then, will Keeper know?_

The Empire would be watching, that much was simply protocol. But would Keeper be watching my every action personally? Given his position it seemed unlikely. Watcher Four would be the go between, only alerting him if something went wrong. Unless she'd done more than her due diligence, she may not recognize Bril though the video feed. There was a chance, only a slim chance maybe, but still a chance that I could complete the mission.

"Are you-" Bril bit his lip again. "Are you disgusted?"

His nervous question was enough to tear me from the chaos of my mind, and I turned down to face him. His eyes were shimmering wet and wide as he finally faced me, looking for any sign that I would think less of him.

"What?" I asked, shocked that he would even ask. "No. If I've learned anything in this life it's that we do what we have to do to survive."

Bril nodded slowly, his bottom lip still between his teeth. He didn't seem any less anxious by my response, still looking up at me with a visage caught halfway between analysis and confusion.

"You're different than you used to be," he says, cocking his head ever so slightly to the side. "You feel… colder. Still Harry, but... not."

_Not. _

Damn it if I hadn't forgotten that fact about him. Even two years and extensive training learning to hide my motives and emotions later and he could still see straight through me. It was downright uncanny. I knew for certain that I was controlling my micro expressions, and I hadn't said enough to give him any indication of how I'd spent the last two years. It didn't matter. He still knew.

"Did you come back here to kill Lady Kallis?" His voice came out in barely a whisper, and he knew the answer to his question without me even needing to give it. Already he was shaking his head firmly.

"Have you gone _insane? _You used to be the guy preaching caution to me, remember? _She will kill you!__" _He repeated.

I smirked then, and it shocked him enough the he actually began to look at me as though I had actuallylost my mind. "Have you forgotten me? Do you really think I'd come back here without a plan?" I asked.

Bril shook his head again. "It's been two years. I think _you__'re _the one who's forgotten. She's capable of anything..." His fear of her was palpable, and enough to make a pit form in my the bottom of my gut. Just as I was different, Bril clearly was too. There was a time when he was the only person who _didn__'t _fear her.

Finally I sat down next to him, keeping my voice level and confident as I spoke. "It _has _been two years. I know now that the galaxy is much bigger than just Nar Shaddaa. Trust me Bril, there are things much scarier out there than Lady Kallis."

_Like me. _

"This is… where have you been for the last two years?" Bril asked.

The question had me standing up again and turning away from him. It was clear why he was asking, but I couldn't tell him. Why wouldn't he be curious? I had no money to get off Nar Shaddaa, but I'd gotten off anyway. I'd returned to him confident, ready to kill the biggest and most monstrous identity who'd stood over us all our lives.

"You can't ask me that," I said firmly. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. He knew I'd been on a mission for the Empire on that fateful day, and that they'd promised to take us in upon completion. But thinking it was one thing, saying was another. I was meant to be killing anybody who knew me, but I especially shouldn't be allowing anybody to know I was working for the Empire to live.

"You've been with the Em-" Bril started, but again I was forced to slap a hand over his mouth. I held it firm, enough that my fingers were digging into his cheeks.

"_I mean it! _You can't ask me that - not ever! Do you understand?" I shout-whispered at him.

My hand still locked firmly over his mouth, Bril dipped his head in agreement, giving me a look that I never thought I'd see on his face when he looked at me. For just the briefest moment he'd been afraid of me. It put my stomach into knots, but it was worth it if it meant his silence. But the way he'd looked at me, eyes wide and confused, totally unable to guess what I might do? I wouldn't forget it anytime soon. I sighed heavily, letting all the tension out of my body and trying to rid myself of emotion. Once again, I couldn't let it get in my way.

"Look, I'm here to kill Lady Kallis. I _have _to kill her," I said forcefully. "Honestly, considering everything… I thought you'd want her dead the most."

Bril frowned like I'd kicked him. "You know I do," he nearly growled. "Do you know what happened after you left? After Lady Kallis had me taken to a doctor?"

My stomach twisted yet again. What I knew had happened was bad enough, and even if I was doing my utmost to ignore it, I couldn't help the guilt from worming itself into my mind. Now he was going to tell me it was worse than I thought?

"You remember how little I saw my mother? How often I wondered whether she cared what happened to me at all? You used to comfort me all the time… but she did care. After I was healed up, Lady Kallis tried to put me to work. But my mother told her no. I'll never forget how she fought and tried to bargain for me to be free of this life…"

_Oh._

"Lady Kallis had her killed. Said she was getting old and it was near enough time to replace her anyway. That's all I am to her. All any of us are. I _do _want her dead."

I didn't have words. Unlike before though, this time it didn't seem like he wanted any comfort. He just wanted me to say no, that I'd back down and leave. He was telling me so that I would understand just how much he believed her invincible. He wanted nothing more than to be finally rid of her, but his fear couldn't allow him to see the possibility of it.

"I can do it," I said softly. Bril opened his mouth to argue, but I grabbed his arm to silence him. "I don't fear her - not anymore. I can't tell you what I've been through or where I've been, but I will tell you this… _I can kill her.__" _

Bril was still shaking his head. "You should leave, and just forget about all this."

"You trusted me once. We made a great team," I said.

That was enough to pull his face into a small smile. "We did."

I took a breath. He _really _wasn't going to like this part. "I can do it… but I need your help. You have access that I don't."

Once again, he looked at me like I'd completely lost my mind. I ignored it.

"What do you say? Got one more con in you for old times sake?"

* * *

**Notes**

_A huge thanks to everyone on my discord for helping me muddle through this chapter. It was initially going to include the entire mission, but it probably would have ended up at like 12k words and it just made more sense to end it here. _

_A special thanks to JauneArc who__'s more or less become my beta for this fic. Thanks man!_

_Anyway I hope you all liked, and thanks for everyone who continues to leave reviews and follows/faves. Much love to you all!_

_PS. Thanks very much to the guest who left such a kind review complimenting the characterization in this. I really wanted to message you back thanking you, but because its a guest account I gotta do it here. So thanks!_

_PSS. To the guy who told me to kill myself because I dropped Harry into the Star Wars universe without any explanation (which is coming in later chapters)__… Fuck you buddy. _


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Another reminder about the discord I've got for fanfiction! I've had it for nearly a year now and there are plenty of people actively online. I've met some really great people there. Lots of fics being recommended there pretty much daily. Hope to see you there! Link is on my profile. **

* * *

**Chapter 9**

I was always able to convince Bril to do what I wanted, even when we were kids. True, I didn't have the same skill he did—that strange ability to completely entrance and influence a stranger using only honeyed words and tone—but I could still convince him into doing just about anything.

In the Academy, my teachers taught about influence and manipulation and how having information about someone's personality or who they know or just about any facet of their life meant having an advantage you could potentially use to control them. When we were pickpocketing street kids I'd been doing just that, only on instinct, without _really_ knowing how I was twisting him into doing what I wanted.

But now I knew, and I was doing it on purpose. I was laying it on thick, using the memory of his dead mother and everything else Lady Kallis had ever done to us, to push him into following my plan despite both the risk of his own death and the fact that it meant having to face his most profound fear. I swallowed my guilt with every word, pushing through any trepidation I had left. No amount of sentiment I had left would keep me from doing my duty.

"You're sure she won't know she's drinking poison?" Bril asked uncertainly. "If she tastes something off…"

"It's fine," I reassured him again. "I concocted the poison _myself. _It has no taste and no odor. Just a drop in her drink is all you'll need."

Bril's eyes narrowed as he looked at me. "You_ made_ this?" he asked, holding up the small vial to examine. "Harry, just _tell me what you've been doing for the last two years!"_

_Stupid! _

Being around Bril again had my guard lowered, and not just physically. I'd done everything I could in my time at the Academy to keep my mind focused and sharp, and slips of the tongue like that should have been beneath me. Just the fact that he was still alive had me more mentally vulnerable. I had to be better. Mistakes, even small ones like that, would kill me in this line of work.

"I told you, you can't ask me that!" I hissed coldly, my fists clenched at my side. "Besides, it doesn't matter. We need to focus on what's happening _now."_

Bril frowned and irritation flashed in his eyes, but my tone didn't invite any more questions. No doubt he knew I'd been with the Empire, but it was still a mistake to tell him that outright. Already my Imperial mandate dictated that I should be killing him—I didn't want to give myself any more reasons to do exactly that.

"Do we need to go over the plan again?" I asked, struggling to swallow down a frustrated sigh. "All you need to do is get Lady Kallis' drink from the bar, add a single drop of poison to it, and take it to her."

"And tell the guard that you want a meeting with Lady Kallis, right? What if he questions it?"

I smirked and shook my head. "Kallis still uses Gamorreans as guards, right?" I asked. "Well, Gamorreans are 95% muscle and 5% brain. They make better attack dogs than they do door guards—too easy to convince. We'll be fine."

He didn't look entirely convinced, but I had all the confidence in the world that it would work. Bril often took Kallis' meals to her at her directive, and not only were Gamorreans generally too thick to question my meeting with her, but I knew that Bril could talk people into just about anything. Time would not have dulled those skills too much—of that I was certain.

"I don't know if I can do this…" Bril whispered. "I don't think I can take a life."

It was a reaction that I should have expected. Always, from the time we were waist high and running around the filthy streets of Nar Shaddaa, _always,_ he'd been the soft one. We had to steal to survive, but he'd never once wanted to. Killing someone—even if that someone was as evil as Lady Kallis—fell so far outside his moral code that it was almost laughable to think of him considering it. But again, I was always able to convince him of anything, even if it had to be something different than he thought it was.

I had no choice but to lie. Fortunately, despite his uncanny ability to read people like an open book, I just happened to be his weakness, just like he was mine. His presence made my mind and training less sharp, just like mine meant that I could lie to him with success. His trust in me would overcome whatever natural ability he had to find the truth underneath lies.

I raised an eyebrow. "I never said it was a _lethal _poison," I lied smoothly. "It'll only knock her out."

"But you said you're here to kill her," Bril argued, eying me suspiciously.

I nodded. "Yes, _I'm _here to kill her. All I need is for you to get me access. If she's knocked out, she can't call out for her guards when she sees me. Then, I can finish her off."

Of course, that wasn't at all true. She needed to die, and the poison itself would absolutely do that. If it weren't for the fact that I needed to kill Zorbo as well, I _would _only have needed Bril's access. Then I could just enter her office and kill her with my bare hands. In reality, that would even be preferable. Despite that I'd left my identity as Harry behind, I couldn't deny the part of me that wanted to kill her myself. Even if it was the best and most efficient solution, poison seemed like a bit of a cop out.

But Zorbo was also on my target list, so I couldn't be that obvious. I was here on behalf of the Empire, and if the rest of the Hutt Cartel suspected that Zorbo's death was at the hands of an Imperial Agent, it potentially took any arms and narcotics deal off the table. Kallis' death, and Zorbo's, had to be as subtle as possible.

"You'll have my back if things go wrong, right? You learned more than just how to make poisons and wear a disguise?" Bril asked. He was still probing for more information, but still I didn't have to lie in my answer.

"I've _always_ got your back."

* * *

Bril looked totally at ease as he approached the bar, slipped the poison into the glass, and walked out to the back rooms towards Kallis' office. I'd known he wouldn't have any problems. Even being separated for two years, Bril and I had been in enough tough situations for me to know that he could keep calm under pressure—even when it meant confronting his greatest fears. He might show his anxieties to me, but when it came to doing what he had to, he was cool, calm, and collected.

I looked around the brothel as I waited for Bril to come back out. The main room was still filled from floor to roof with dark red light, making it seem as though there was a panel of stained glass sitting directly in front of my retinas.

After all my experience on Dromund Kaas, I felt a sort of disconnect between my old life as Harry and my new life as an Imperial Agent. As much as I knew all the memories the place brought were my own, they felt foreign to me, as though I was looking at them through the eyes of another. Before Dromund Kaas, the brothel had always disgusted me. The patrons at the House of Plom Bloom were everything I didn't want to be.

Now that I was an asset of the Empire, I felt disdain on another level entirely. The brothel represented everything the Empire stood against. It was an expression of absolute freedom, the kind of place that exists only when there are no steadfast rules to constrain the devils of intelligent life. Freedom was tantamount to anarchy and could result only in disorder and chaos. The Empire would put a stop to all of it. It was just another reason I had to succeed.

Bril pulled me from the uncomfortable memories when he reappeared from the back rooms. His face was completely passive, no smile or frown to give any indication of his emotional state. That, I knew, was a bad sign. Bril wore his heart on his sleeve, no doubt a part of the charm that had made him a good thief—but showing no emotion at all generally meant he was trying to hide his fear or anxiety more actively.

"What happened?" I asked quietly, only loud enough for him to hear. Bril's eyes were wide and shimmering wet, and I could see something like an accusation in his gaze as he looked at me.

"She drank it. She didn't even question it…" Bril said. He was trying to look confident, but his shaky tone betrayed his distress.

Of course she hadn't questioned it. I had never expected that she would. Kallis ruled her underlings through fear, and she had no doubts about the power she had over them. To her mind, there was no question of any possible betrayal. But the true fact was, Kallis _had_ no realcontrol. Sure, all her workers feared her power among the Hutt Cartel and her unpredictable nature, but the Empire had shown me over and over that ruling through fear alone is ineffective.

It's not the fear itself that's the problem—the Empire ruled _absolutely_ with it—but it's the fact that Kallis gave her workers no real reason _not _to betray her that was the issue. Life in the Empire could still be comfortable, even for those who didn't trust their government completely. People were still able to work and make a living and have a decent life. Kallis didn't offer her workers that. It made their existence feel meaningless, and if they were to see an opportunity to rebel, it meant they weren't _really _risking anything more than their own life. If all that life consisted of was effective slavery at the House of Plom Bloom? Most would find the risk to be well worth it.

"Can we go in? Did you tell the guard about the meeting?" I pushed. I wasn't going to question Bril about what the problem was. I was pretty sure it was because he'd discovered my lie about the lethality of the poison, but either way, I wasn't willing to ask while we were out in the open.

Bril dipped his head once, the movement so minimal I almost doubted that he'd moved at all. But I didn't need him to be emphatic. I just wanted to get it over and done with.

I moved past Bril, grabbing his arm and pulling so that he would follow behind me. As I rounded the corner towards Kallis' office, I registered that I was catching the eyes of a few of the workers headed in and out of the dressing rooms. I paid them no mind. I just had to act confident that I was exactly where I should be. I was more likely to get stopped if I looked uncomfortable or lost.

I slowed to let Bril move ahead of me as we neared Kallis' office, just in time for the Gamorrean guard to look up at our approach. I could still see the tension in Bril's shoulders, but just as I'd thought, the guard just grunted and stepped aside. I stepped past and closed the door behind me after Bril.

Bril froze in place just inside, staring across the room towards the desk.

But I couldn't focus on that, yet. My gaze darted about the room, looking for any sign of threat, or any sign that someone else could see what was happening. There was nothing—merely a small and well decorated room, furnished with a fairly simple desk and chair. There were ornate busts decorating two corners and a red tapestry of some warlike scene covering nearly the entire wall behind the desk.

Finally, I cast my gaze to Kallis, sitting absolutely still in her chair behind the desk. Too still. Her eyes were wide, her body lounged lazily in her chair in a way that I knew she would _never _sit in her right mind.

A smile crossed my face. The poison was doing its job.

"I thought you said the poison wouldn't kill her!" Bril hissed, finally turning around to face me with flared nostrils. "She's dead!"

My eyes flicked towards Bril and then back at Kallis. Her red eyes were staring straight at where I was standing in front of the door, but she wasn't moving even slightly, nor did she make any sort of sound.

"She's not dead—but I'd bet she's wishing she was…" I spoke coldly, imbibing my voice with every dark memory, every ounce of hatred I had towards her.

"Look at her!" Bril whisper-shouted. "Not blinking, not speaking—she's dead!"

I shook my head. "No, she's _paralyzed. _But you can still see us, right, Kallis? Can still hear us? I've never felt the effects of the poison myself, but I'm told it's _agony._" I stepped closer to the desk and leaned over it, getting my face close enough that we could look into each other's eyes.

"You remember me, don't you? It wasn't so long ago that I spent every day at _your _mercy. How things have changed…"

A tiny, practically inaudible sound bubbled its way up her throat. Bril gasped at the sound, clearly having not believed that she was alive despite my saying so. Still, there was something in her eyes that I couldn't quite grasp, almost like she was confused. It took me a moment to remember my disguise. I reached up to wipe the makeup off my forehead, uncovering my lightning-bolt scar. At that, her eyes widened minutely, and I took solace in the fact that she knew _exactly _who had come for her.

"Oh, so you _do _remember me," I said. "Perhaps you want to call out for your guards?"

Another murmur, this one sounding more desperate than the first, but certainly no louder.

"Or perhaps the antidote? I have it right here," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a small vial filled with a clear liquid. Kallis' eyes filled with tears, but I would feel no pity for the woman. How many lives had she ruined besides mine and Bril's? She deserved nothing from me but torment and death.

"Just tell me you want the antidote, and I'll gladly give it to you," I said coldly.

"Harry… this is wrong," Bril whispered behind me. "I thought you were going to kill her…"

I shook my head. "The poison will do that, eventually. I'd hate for her to die without having time to think back on all her mistakes. Of course, I could always give her the antidote, she only has to ask…"

Kallis let out a stifled, enraged scream. Still, it was only loud enough to be heard in the room, not even close to enough to be heard outside. The poison wouldn't allow her any more freedom than that.

"You said it would only knock her out!" Bril said, keeping his voice low. He looked more frightened than ever, though whether that was a result of what was happening with Kallis in general, or that it had been done by his own hand, I wasn't sure.

I finally whirled around to face the only friend I'd ever known, but I wasn't only looking at him through that lens—not right now. Right now, he was beginning to prove himself a liability. "If I'd told you what the poison was going to do, you would never have done what was needed," I said, more coldly than I intended. "There's no room in this world for weakness, Bril. You want to get off this planet? You're going to have to do _exactly _what I say."

From the hurt that flashed across Bril's face, I might as well have hit him. "You're not the Harry I know at all, are you?" he asked. I didn't answer, but he was absolutely right. The boy he'd known was _dead. I _was very much alive.

I ignored him, surprised at my own lack of guilt. The fact was simple. I just wasn't _really _Harry anymore, and now we both knew it. Still, I couldn't kill Bril, that much was certain. If he could just stay quiet and let me do what I was here to do, he could finally be free. I wouldn't feel guilty for anything I had to do to make that happen.

I turned back to Kallis. "I only have one question for you," I said. "If you can answer me honestly, you might just survive this little encounter."

Kallis' eyes rolled in their sockets, but she let out another sound, this one eerily different from the others she'd made. Almost an agreement.

"Where is your access to Zorbo's palace? Is it in this room?"

Even with the poison coursing through her veins, Kallis visibly paled at my question. Her eyes widened, and there was the tiniest movement in her head, like she was trying to shake it from side to side.

"I know you have a private elevator into his compound, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that it's somewhere close…"

I'd seen it in security recordings gathered by Watcher Four. Nearly every day, Kallis emerged in Zorbo's palace by way of an elevator. But there was only one camera in the brothel itself, and it was only in the main room with the patrons. I could never determine where it was. But it had to exist somewhere in the back rooms, and in my childhood, Kallis' office was the only one I'd never been inside.

Bril grabbed me by the shoulder, and I had to do everything in my power not to reach around and break his arm. That reaction was near instinctive after all the training I'd done on Dromund Kaas. As it was, I merely looked down at his hand on my shoulder, and then back at Bril himself with narrowed eyes.

"What is the matter with you? Why would you want access to Zorbo's palace, of all places? It's even more dangerous than _here! _Why can't we just leave now? With Kallis… like _that, _can't we just go?" Bril's voice was desperate and pleading, and his fingers dug into my shoulders like he was trying to spear them through one side and out the other. His breathing was quick and shallow, his hand clammy on my shoulder.

A small, mostly ignored instinct in my head suggested that I turn around and comfort him, that I agree with what he was saying. I couldn't afford to do that. Bril's fear of Kallis and Zorbo could quickly become a big problem, but I wasn't about to modicoddle his weakness.

I batted his hand off my shoulder, still resisting the urge to go on the attack. "Bril, _shut up!" _I growled. "I told you, if you want to get out of here, you need to do as I say!"

Bril shrunk back again, looking torn between an urge to run and trying to listen to whatever part of him still trusted that I had his best interests in mind. In a way, I still did, only that meant not wanting to kill him despite my orders dictating that I should. Still, it was a lie to say that I was doing this for him. If I were, I'd ignore killing Zorbo and just escape with Bril off-world. The thought had flashed through my head, but I couldn't _really _consider it one of my options. That life was for Harry.

"So, Kallis, in this room?" I asked, walking around the desk until I was facing the tapestry on the far wall. "Strange place for a curtain, isn't it?"

The desperate squeak that sounded from Kallis' throat told me that I'd found what I was looking for. I grabbed the back of her chair and spun it around so that she could see what I was doing. I didn't want her to miss even a second of her failure. With one tug at the edge of the tapestry it came cascading down, revealing the elevator door behind. It wasn't very big, probably only meant for one person, but it was all I needed to get into Zorbo's palace unnoticed. On the wall to its right was a small scanner.

"Looks like an optical scanner," I said, mostly to myself, though Kallis let out another noise in protest. She was giving me her best 'I'm going to kill you' look that used to terrify me as a child. There had been a time when one look at those red eyes would have had me on my knees and kissing her feet, but now it put a smile on my face. I was the one in control. She was at my mercy. She would live or die based on my decisions, and there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let her live. What was even better was her knowing that I could use her to get into Zorbo's palace with the potential to erase her entire reason for living—serving Zorbo and the Hutt Cartel.

"Come and help me for a second, if you don't mind," I said. I reached out and grabbed her with one hand on the neck and the other pulling her silken black hair. I lifted her out of the seat and smashed her head into the wall next to the scanner. Her nose snapped with a resounding crack, almost loud enough to drown out the gasp earned from Bril.

That was probably a reckless move, but I couldn't help it. Any damage to anybody and a sign of an obvious death risked the Cartel finding out that it was the Empire who had orchestrated the attack, but even that logic couldn't completely make me control my behavior. It was all I could do not to wrap my own hands around her neck and choke the life out of her. Maybe in missions in the future I would be able to remain cold and impartial, but not this one. Kallis had made my life a hell for too long. There was no way I wasn't going to enjoy it.

"Sorry about that. Let me try again."

This time I held her eye over the scanner, though I was hardly gentle with the way I'd pressed her face to the cold metal. The elevator door opened with a hiss, revealing a space only big enough for a couple of people, and another optical scanner on the inside to make it move.

"I guess you're coming with," I looked down at Kallis, blood now dripping from her nose. "How nice that you get to spend more time with your old wards." I shoved her into the elevator, watching her land unceremoniously in the corner in a heap, her body not giving even the slightest amount of resistance. Even now the poison would be flooding through her, sapping her energy, and eventually causing her organs to shut down.

"Alright, Bril, inside," I said. Bril looked momentarily hesitant, but all it took was a stern look from me to get him moving. His trust in me was waning quickly, and it didn't take a genius to see it. Still, even if he didn't trust me in the way that he used to, he still wasn't dumb. He was too deep in it now to do anything but come with. Even under the circumstances he would no doubt see that I was the best chance he had at survival.

I waited for him to step into the elevator before I squeezed in beside him and lifted Kallis' head once more to the optical scanner. The doors slid shut, locking us inside as it started to rise. I dropped Kallis to the ground with a thump.

"Once the doors open, we'll be in Zorbo's palace, understand?" I asked Bril. "From here on out, you can't question me at all. I might have to act at a moment's notice, and I might not have time to explain everything. What I do, you do, okay?"

Bril shuffled his feet, and his shoulders still looked tense, but he nodded once. The blood had rushed from his face, giving his usual royal blue skin a flushed, sickly sort of visage. The Twi'leki headtails that usually hung casually over his shoulders stuck tight to his back in an obvious sign of his increasing anxiety. Nevertheless, he mimicked my movements, sticking close to the wall in case somebody was at the other end waiting for us.

The trip from Dromund Kaas back to Nar Shaddaa had taken a while, during which I'd spent watching and analyzing security footage obtained by Watcher Four of Zorbo's palace. I knew the layout of the place inside out and back to front, from the schedule of the security patrols to the most direct route to each objective. Once those doors opened, I'd have to move as fast and as quietly as possible. Stealth was my only advantage here, and that was hindered by Bril's hesitance.

But my timing couldn't have been worse. According to all the footage I'd studied, a normal day would have patrols passing every three minutes or so, and apparently, the elevator was opening on exactly that third minute. Fortunately, it was only a one man patrol, and just a human, or possibly a cyborg. A human I could deal with. Unfortunately, I had to act unarmed. Use of a lethal weapon would make it clear that foul play was involved. I couldn't have that.

Bril let out a gasp as the doors opened, but I didn't hesitate. I leapt out of the elevator towards my foe, keeping myself low to the ground to make myself as small a target as possible in case he was more of a 'shoot first, ask questions later' type. He wasn't. The shock of us being there at all had him frozen in surprise, if only for a second. I was on him just as he was reaching for the blaster at his belt, but he'd taken action far too late.

I jabbed at his windpipe with outstretched fingers just in case his first instinct was to call for help. He coughed and gurgled, and his hands reached up for his throat on instinct as though they could heal any damage I'd done. Immediately, I was reaching for his blaster ahead of him and kicking out at his shin to throw him off balance. At my age, and against an opponent bigger and stronger than I was, the only chance I had was to knock him off balance. Fortunately, I was trained to know exactly where to hit to inflict the most damage, and my strike had him toppling sideways with a grunt of pain.

Even as he fell, I slipped the blaster from his holster and swung the butt of it straight at his temple. The first hit caused another grunt and him groggily lashing out, but he managed nothing more than to clutch at my face with desperate fingers. The second swing caught him dead on the side of the head. He let out a whoosh of air, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he collapsed.

The whole thing took only a matter of seconds. It was sloppier than I would have liked, but that was the cost of hand to hand combat, especially since my strength and size would never allow for an instant knockout or kill. Still, it had been relatively quiet, and there was very little chance that anybody else had heard. I still had the advantage.

I grabbed him under the arms and began dragging him over towards the elevator. "Bril, give me a hand," I grunted as I pulled his limp form. Bril did as he was asked, but he was giving me a look I'd never really seen in his eyes before. Somewhere between fear and awe. I shouldn't have been surprised. In all the time we'd known each other, there was no way he could imagine I was able to act the way I had.

"So, you _were _with the Empire…" he said quietly, helping me dump the guard in the elevator with Kallis. The woman herself was still watching me with wide eyes, now full of understanding from what she'd heard from Bril.

"Stop. Talking," I whispered firmly. It was a lucky thing Kallis was more than halfway dead already. If my mission got traced back to the Empire it might as well be considered a failure no matter _who _I managed to kill. I wanted to grab Bril and force the importance of that into his head, but there was no way he could fully understand, and there simply wasn't time. There was only about two and a half minutes before the next patrol, and I had to move fast. The elevator door shut, hiding Kallis and the guard securely inside.

"Go where I go, and _keep your trap shut_," I hissed. Bril nodded, and I saw his eyes fall to where the blaster still sat in the hand at my side. Evidently, his trust in me was falling so quickly he thought I might shoot him. Given the fact that he was seeing a side of me that he hadn't before, I shouldn't have been so surprised.

I took off down the hall at a jog, doing my best to ignore Bril's awe. He was following, but it wasn't exactly disciplined, and he spent more time looking up at the cavernous roof and the walls adorned with expensive paintings and statues than he did paying attention to what I was doing or where we were going. I couldn't really blame him. I'd already known what the inside would look like from the security footage, and I'd seen much more of the galaxy now than just Nar Shaddaa. Bril hadn't. Doubtless, he'd never seen anything so impressively expensive.

"Bril, keep up. The next patrol is only a minute and a half away."

It was enough to have him returning his focus to reality, and reality was enough to make him remember the stakes. If we were found by Zorbo's enforcers it would mean certain death and assuredly not a comfortable one. Hutts weren't exactly known for being merciful, after all. As one raised on Nar Shaddaa, Bril knew this better than most.

Without my extensive study of the security footage I'd never have found my way. Zorbo's palace was as immense as his wealth allowed, which meant enough twisting corridors to have anyone turned back to front. Out my peripheral vision I could see the frown forming on Bril's face every time we turned a corner, probably thinking we were getting more lost with every step. Still, I moved with absolute confidence. I had a strict plan for once I got into the palace, even allowing for lost time if I came across a guard, which, of course I had.

_Twenty seconds left. _

I found the door I was looking for with plenty of time to spare. It slid open at our approach, revealing a simple stairwell much less grandiose than everywhere else in the palace. I pulled Bril inside just before the next patrol rounded the corner.

_Too close. _Having Bril with me was messing with my timing and cutting my efficiency. I'd planned to be here much sooner than the next patrol, even if they were moving fast. I couldn't afford any mistakes. An Agent for Imperial Intelligence didn't have the benefit of 'learning for next time.' I had to be _better. _

I kept dragging Bril as I moved down the stairs while he looked over the handrail and down at the bottom. Our footsteps echoed up and down, but it was unlikely to be a problem. They would only be used in cases of emergencies. Elevators were much more efficient, and Zorbo's palace had many of them.

We continued down the stairs as far as they went, finally stopping before another door: my actual target.

"Is this how we're getting out?" Bril whispered, unable to keep the increasing nerves from affecting his tone. I let out a sigh and stopped before facing him. He was physically shaking as he clung to the guardrail, looking as though I was about to ask him to fight a Rancor head on with his bare hands.

I let out another sigh. If everything went according to plan, this would probably be the last chance I get to speak to him. After everything we'd been through, he deserved answers. Not just about where I'd been, either. He deserved the _real _truth about why I was back on Nar Shaddaa. Maybe I wasn't truly Harry anymore, but Bril had been the reason I'd gone to Imperial Intelligence in the first place. He was just a part of my life as an Agent as he was a part of Harry's life as his best friend.

"Bril, have you not figured it out by now? I'm not here for _you. _I thought you were dead, remember?" I said, my voice level. "I have a mission, and I'm not leaving until it's done."

There was no point hiding the real truth from him, much as I was loath to admit it. He'd seen enough and knew enough of my history with Imperial Intelligence that my working for them was the only realistic conclusion. How else could I have learned how to mix my own poisons? How else would I have learned how to take down an armed opponent with my bare hands? Why else would I infiltrate a Hutt's palace of all places?

Bril grabbed my forearm tight and looked into my eyes. "You don't have to stay with them," he pleaded. "We can just escape. You and me, like we always wanted…"

His eyes were wet and shimmering, whether a result of his fear or his desperation for me to listen, I didn't know. Maybe it was both. His voice was laced with concern and his words trembled. His desire to return to a simpler time was written all over his features.

The problem was, he was still speaking to Harry, not me. Even if there was a small voice inside my brain urging me to listen to him, I wouldn't. I couldn't. The Empire was my future. Harry had been _weak_, and that was something I never wanted to be again. I'd done everything I could to forget my life on Nar Shaddaa, and that couldn't just be erased, not even by Bril.

"I didn't come to get my old life back, or to recapture the dreams we had as children," I answered slowly. "I came here to _erase _my old life. Lady Kallis, maybe some of the bouncers… I've been sent back here to kill everyone who knows my face—to neutralize any chance that someone might recognize me."

The momentary silence that followed was deafening.

"Are you going to kill _me?" _he , though his question should have had the opposite effect, Bril's voice had lost its nervous, desperate edge. It was calm, almost as if he was preparing himself to accept his death. His shoulders dropped, completely losing the tension that they'd had since I arrived. I got the distinct impression that if I was about to try and kill him, he'd let me. Then again, maybe it was just that from what he'd seen, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop me.

My face betrayed no emotion—just a cold, hard logic. "I _should _kill you…" I murmured. For a moment the image of it played in my mind's eye. It would be easy. I'd know exactly where to strike to make it happen. In just moments, it could cease to be a problem at all. Just strike at vital points, and watch the light leave those blue eyes—

My logic vanished, and bile threatened to rise in my throat. The mere thought of doing that to Bril… It didn't just feel wrong, it felt _impossible. _Killing Bril would be like killing a part of _myself, _or at least, killing a part of Harry.

But then, I wasn't Harry anymore. I wasn't.

I_ wasn't. _

Just picturing it was enough to make me feel unsteady, and I almost had to reach for the rail on the stairs. Bril watched me unblinking, unmoving. Since I'd arrived he'd looked nervous, afraid of the new reality he'd found himself a part of. Now though, watching me admit the truth out loud and the way it threatened to unravel my new existence as an Imperial Agent, he looked deadly serious, lacking any sort of fear or uncertainty. He knew _exactly _what I was thinking.

"I could never kill you," I admitted, talking to myself as much as to him. It was my turn now to have a shaky voice, and I _hated _it. My fists were clenched at my side, nearly hard enough for my fingernails to dig into my palms and draw blood. This wasn't meant to happen to me anymore. For two years I'd been resolute and unyielding. I wasn't supposed to show signs of weakness. An hour with Bril and I was already cracking at the seams. Even if I couldn't kill him, I couldn't return to being _this_, either.

No matter what, my future was the Empire, and it couldn't involve Bril. For one, my mission was to kill _everyone _who knew me, so he would never be welcome there. Hell, if the Empire found out that Bril was alive and I'd let him live, the possibility existed that they would execute the both of us. For another, his presence would mean that I could never _truly_ bury my past. He would always be a reminder of my weakness. An anchor holding me down. I couldn't have both.

There was only one thing to do. I had to free us both, even if it meant Bril might hate me forever. I could live with that. We'd never see each other again, anyway. I just needed him to come with me for a bit longer to make it happen.

"The Empire will never accept you," I said. "It would mean that I disobeyed a direct order—and I'm meant to be buryingmy past…"

Bril's eyes widened and his grip on my arm tightened as he listened. A tiny blossom of hope flared into him, his emotion as obvious to me as the sun rising in the morning. "So, if you can't kill me, and the Empire would execute you for letting me live…"

I nodded slightly. "We have no choice but to run. To go somewhere so far away that the Empire will never find us," I lied. It was an awful, terrible lie. Not in my delivery, but in how much it was a betrayal of him. It was all he'd ever wanted, and while I'd spent two years learning to become strong, he'd likely spent the last two years trying to will our old dream into reality. Telling him it was going to happen and never intending to come through on that promise might be the most treacherous thing I could do to him. It would also mean he would _live. _

Bril narrowed his eyes, squinting at me the way he often used to do to gauge if I was telling the truth. I knew he would believe me. Even with his ridiculously intuitive nature, he wanted to believe the lie with all his soul. If I was truly honest with myself, I would also acknowledge that it was more believable because it held a little truth. A part of me still wanted to follow our old dream, too. But it was impossible, and so I shoved those dreams away as far as I could. The beaming smile that eventually crossed Bril's face made me want to take my own vibroknife and stick it into my stomach as penance.

"Then, we're leaving? Can you get us out of here the way you got us in?"

I shook my head. "We can't leave yet. The Empire will hunt me. I know too much for them to just let me go. But maybe if I can just finish this mission for them, they'll be less compelled to chase us."

Bril lifted a hand to his chin, finally releasing me from his grip. "Do you think so? I mean, if you know too much, won't they chase you anyway?"

I nodded again. "Probably, but I know what they're like. They'll put more resources towards finding us if I don't finish the mission. It's our best chance to _really _escape."

He bought the lie more easily than I expected him to. I guess it was because as I thought, he _wanted_ to believe it. The easy smile that was so often seen in my youth reappeared on his face. Logically, it should've made me happy. It meant my plan was working, my well-laid plans beginning to come to fruition.

But happiness wasn't even close to what I felt. My stomach was churning, my mind flashing with the image of what I would have to do to make those plans real. If my training on Dromund Kaas hadn't conditioned me into being so mission-dedicated, I would have taken off running just to get away from the situation with Bril. Instead, I had to do everything I could to show an equally happy visage, a mere mask so that he would believe my lies.

"Okay then," Bril said, slapping a closed fist into his other hand. "Lead the way." His earlier fear of Zorbo's palace was entirely gone now, replaced with determination to finally be rid of Nar Shaddaa. Watching it was awful. Ruining his dream would be _awful. _

Finally, I turned away and stepped through the door at the bottom of the stairs. It opened onto a massive inside landing bay that served as a storage area for Zorbo's arms dealing operations. It would be guarded, but according to the security footage, likely only by a few people wandering about the landing. Fortunately, it was filled with crates of weapons and bombs, each one big enough for me to hide behind. If all went according to plan, I would be in and out without them ever knowing we were there.

"Stay here," I whispered to Bril. "We're not alone in here, and I'll be faster on my own. But be ready to move fast when I get back."

A little of his prior fear etched its way onto his face, but he nodded. The trust in me that had been waning all day had returned in full force.

I took off into the warehouse. Fortunately, the stairwell was in the far corner at the back, the least likely place for a security patrol to be. I used the crates of weapons as cover, darting between them and keeping my eyes peeled in case they were going to approach. I could hear them, laughing on the other side of the landing bay. Getting past them should be child's play. They would never see what was coming before it was already upon them. None of them would.

I'd organized this part of the plan days before arriving back on Nar Shaddaa. Having Watcher Four organize the device I needed to be in Zorbo's storage area was easy. All she had to do was create a profile as an intergalactic pirate who needed to purchase a specific weapon, and Zorbo's people would supply their own demise. I'd even watched the security tapes as a ship had unloaded it off a ship right into the warehouse, so I even knew where to look to find it.

Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the room, right over towards the huge, starship-sized doors which only ever opened when an arms delivery or pickup was here to complete their deal. It wouldn't give me much time. Still, I knew it would work. I'd planned every detail meticulously. Failure wasn't a part of my mission.

The guards never even heard a peep. My training made that certain. There were all sorts of tricks one could use to move quietly and undetected, and I was proficient in them all. It only took about a minute before I found the right weapon.

_A Dioxis bomb. _

It was an incredibly dangerous piece of equipment. It was more or less just a large metallic cylinder, standing at about double the height of me, and about four times as long. On its side was a small arming pad. It was exactly the weapon I'd need to finish the mission, and to make the entire thing appear an accident. Imperial Intelligence had given me everything I needed.

With just a few small adjustments to the arming pad, any investigation would find that the weapon had armed itself and gone off as part of a technical fault, releasing the gallons of toxic gas inside. It would be enough to kill the entire palace, including the Brothel downstairs. I would only need to do one more thing to ensure that it happened just the way I intended.

Carefully, I peeled the cover off the keypad with the vibroknife tucked into my waistband. One small wire cut and the bomb would be armed, setting the timer for a measly seven and a half minutes. Quite a crucial flaw in an otherwise brilliant weapon. The Empire's experts would never make such a mistake in weapon design. Still, it wasn't surprising. Black arms deals weren't exactly dealing with state of the art equipment. The only goal was to make quick credits. That would only make it accidentally arming all the more believable.

With a dull beep, the weapon armed as I cut the wire, and I snapped the keypad back into place.

The guards were still laughing on the other side of the port. I nearly rolled my eyes. Again, Empire guards would never be so lax in their duties. The Cartel guards were undisciplined, and it would cost _all _of them their lives. That didn't make it so it was anything other than fortunate for me, though. It allowed me to get out quickly and straight back to Bril.

"We have to run," I told Bril as I re-entered the stairwell. "Keep up."

I didn't wait for him to answer, running straight up the stairs towards my next target. Bril huffed behind me, but he kept pushing through. He wasn't unfit, but I'd spent nearly every day since leaving Nar Shaddaa increasing my endurance one way or another. I could simply move much faster and longer than him now. Still, he kept up as best he could, and we made better time than I'd hoped.

My next goal was the ventilation control room. It was a rarely used and not often guarded room in the palace that allowed them basic control over the palace—the general ventilation, cooling, and heating of the place. For those who worked in the palace and as a part of Zorbo's operation, they didn't really need to worry about such things. The only time it would ever change was if Zorbo himself complained of the ventilation or the temperature, and Hutt's rarely worried about such trifles. They were used to the contaminated, polluted jungles of Hutta. It took _a lot_ for them to be uncomfortable.

And yet, a room overlooked by so many was the absolute crux of my plan. In fact, both mine and Bril's survival completely depended on it. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to make it there before the bomb went off. It was just back into one of the many corridors of the palace and through a door not far from the stairwell. Easy.

So easy, in fact, that I didn't see any security. It was the major security flaw in having a palace so large. It made guarding it all the more difficult. Like the floor with the three minute patrols, this one _did_ have guards as well, but finally luck was holding out, and both Bril and I managed to get into the control room without being spotted. Inside, there were a few dusty, rusted pipes and the sound of air rushing through the vents on the wall. On the far side was an old, but functional, computer interface—just what I was looking for.

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the data spike that Watcher Four had created for just this moment. Once inserted, it would allow back-door access to the interface to control the general purpose of the control room. I used the spike and began tapping along the screen, eager to access the ventilation system.

It was a complex system, as it needed to be for _any _ventilation on Nar Shaddaa. The outside air was so polluted and unhealthy that any person of wealth needed to install state of the art ventilation just to have clean air. Still, a system as immense as Zorbo's palace could even be powerful enough to nullify the effects of the Dioxis bomb, and I couldn't have that.

For everyone else on the smuggler's moon, ventilation would seem so harmless, even beneficial. I would turn it into a weapon. All I needed to do was reverse the intake, and instead of ventilation, it would keep all the Dioxis gas inside the palace, even supporting its spread from room to room, until every living creature inside was dead.

Or _nearly _every living creature. All I had to do was turn off the ventilation completely for the control room, and Bril and I would be in an airtight room while every other part of the palace—including the brothel below—being connected to the same system, would be filled completely with lethal, toxic gas.

It was easy to physically hear my success. The sounds of rushing air in the control room stopped, and the computer interface showed the reversal of the ventilation, as well as the slowly increasing levels of pollution in the palace. Given time, one of the staff or an enforcer would come to check—but time was something they didn't have. The bomb would go off in a minute or so, too soon for them to do anything about it. The mission was almost done. My first mission for the Empire, one that perhaps even a seasoned Agent might struggle with. True, I'd only been as successful so far because of my insider knowledge as a result of my past, but still, it was something to be proud of. But I would save my celebration until it was complete.

"You can do so much now…" Bril whispered, awed as he watched the interface. "The Empire taught you so much."

Bril's voice over my shoulder nearly made me jump. It's not that I'd forgotten he was there, but my focus on completing the mission had let me forget about what I now had to do to _him. _

"What is it that you're doing, exactly?"

His question was an opportunity to do what I needed, though, now that the time was really here I wanted nothing more than to change my mind. But I couldn't. It was for him as much as it was for me. We needed to be free. For me to finally become a genuine agent of the Empire, and him to live a life away from Nar Shaddaa. A peaceful life.

"Downstairs I armed a bomb full of poison gas. Now, I've just reversed the ventilation and protected this room from the gas to protect us," I explained simply, turning slowly to face him. There was no way I could keep my emotions from my expression, now. He'd know something was wrong just by looking at me.

He did. His expression morphed to genuine alarm, a genuine fear. Not of the bomb I'd told him about, but of the fact that I'd lied to him about what was going to happen after. I watched as tears filled his blue eyes once more.

"What's it going to do to everyone?" he asked quietly, though it sounded rhetorical. He wanted me to answer, I could tell that much, but he knew what I was going to say before I voiced it.

"Kill _everyone. _Zorbo, his men, his staff. The entire palace. The brothel downstairs. Every person in the building who could even possibly remember my face," I said. I intentionally poured cruelty and malice into my tone. Bril needed to forget Harry, and it would be easier if he most vividly remembered a side of me that he'd never _really _seen that much. The rest of my thoughts went unsaid. It wasn't just their lives I was ending. Killing them also meant the end of every haunted memory I had of Nar Shaddaa. It was the nail in the coffin of my old life.

"Harry, you _can't. _Half of them are innocents! The workers under Kallis are just as trapped as you or I _ever _were. Even those working under Zorbo—not all of them are bad!" Bril started, nearly yelling, and definitely crying.

It was time.

Without hesitation, I grabbed Bril and twisted him around so my arm was around his neck, and my free hand on the back of his head. I began to squeeze. My own vision was becoming blurry with tears, but it had to be done.

"Bril, I'm sorry, but this is how it has to be. One day, you might even come to thank me for this. You can finally be free," I whispered into his ear as I squeezed his throat. I wasn't killing him, just knocking him out. When he woke up, I would be gone, and there would be no guards to stop him from leaving. His resourceful nature would make him take any credits or anything of wealth he saw—enough to get him off-world and start a new life.

Bril whimpered and choked and clutched at the arm around his neck, trying desperately to break free of the hold. He couldn't. I had a steadfast grip, and I wouldn't let go. It wasn't long before I felt his energy sap, and his legs buckled. I let the arm around his neck loosen and lowered him gently to the ground. The alarm of the computer interface started to sound quietly in the background, an indication of the bomb going off and the toxic gas spreading throughout the palace.

I paid it no mind, looking instead at Bril's unconscious form. For the first time in two years, and what I hoped to be the last time ever, I let my old personality take over. I let Harry take over. And for the first time in two years, I broke down and sobbed.

* * *

The Dioxis had done its job. I'd made sure of that. Zorbo's ugly, sluglike body held no signs of life, nor did anybody in the palace. Kallis, as well, was undoubtedly dead, the one part of the mission I'd taken genuine pleasure in. But I felt empty as I walked into the Imperial Intelligence building on Dromund Kaas. I felt different even more than I had at the end of my academy training. I felt like a completely different person, now.

I felt no remaining sentiment about my time on Nar Shaddaa. It was behind me. All that was ahead was my career as an Agent.

Watcher Four met me outside of mission control. "U-uhm, you did well, Trainee Seventeen," she stammered.

_Trainee Seventeen._ Hopefully, after meeting with Keeper, it would be the last time I heard myself designated in such a way. I nodded, but I didn't need to say anything to her. Agents were professional, not boastful.

"Did you manage to scrub me from the security footage?" I asked.

The Watcher nodded once. "My program erased footage of you wherever you went. The rest of the Cartel believe it was an accident, like you said. Some think the bomb was faulty. The ones who don't have expressed quiet belief that it was another in the Cartel."

I nearly let out a sigh of relief, but refrained. If Keeper suspected even for a moment that I'd found Bril, and then left him live—there was no telling what would happen. But as I hoped, Watcher Four had relied on her program to erase my face and those with me wherever I went. It reduced the chance of somebody spotting a digital footprint on their security recordings.

I would be in none of the ones on Nar Shaddaa. The program would cut the footage of me in it with old footage, so it appeared I was never there at all. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Is Keeper ready to see me?" I asked.

My Watcher nodded. "H-he's waiting for you in his office."

I took off towards Keepers office without another word. Like always, the balding man was behind his desk, watching the many monitors on his walls, keeping his eyes on matters of intelligence throughout the galaxy. No doubt he'd already watched footage of my mission on Nar Shaddaa, just like he had of my final exam in the Academy.

"Congratulations," he said without turning. "Your mission was a success."

"It was," I agreed.

Keeper turned to face me.

"Now your career with Imperial Intelligence can truly begin, _Agent Nine._"

* * *

**Notes**

Sorry this took so long. I've been pretty busy with work and stuff, and this chapter is loooong. Definitely the longest I've written.

Anyway, it's the last chapter before Harry's life proper with Imperial Intelligence, so no more Nar Shaddaa. Hogwarts is upcoming, I just need to decide whether I do another timeskip, or establish Harry's normal life as an Agent first.

Thanks for being patient with me :)

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